Pokemon Adventures: Soul
by Soul X-Link
Summary: Burdened with the loss of his parents, Soul sets out on a journey to overcome his past. Through his travels, Soul learns to face his weaknesses and take on new challenges with tough opponents and the Sinnoh League. On the way he meets new people, and tackles the threat of an evil organization know as Syndicate, unaware of their grand scheme to decimate the Sinnoh Region.
1. PokemonAdventures:Soul 1 So it Begins!

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Prologue:

My name is Soul. My mother died giving birth, so I grew up with no mother. My father was an assistant to the great at the time. He vowed to take care of me, and of course to show me the wonders of pokemon. Then a funny little accident occurred, when I was only three years old. He got caught in an explosion at a huge facility in Veilstone City, where he was doing research on the legendary pokemon Palkia and Dialga. He died a hero, trying to save as many civilians and pokemon caught in the inferno as possible. I was too young...too weak to do anything, i will never forget that feeling of helplessness.. They say that it was due to an evil plot Team Galactic had cooked up, all under a man by the name of Cyrus. He was defeated by 3 really powerful trainers, and their grand scheme was stopped. Though the sinnoh region was saved…I was now left fatherless and motherless. None of my "relatives" wanted to take me in. I guess I was too much of a hassle, or just another mouth to feed.

So took me in under his wing, to honor my dad. Guess he just felt like he owed my old man or whatever. The other kids my age never played with me, probably because I was an orphan that lived in a science lab. They mocked me and eventually moved on to become trainers or breeders, whatever they studied to become. I stayed behind, deciding that in order to become a great trainer, I had to learn as much as possible about pokemon.

It was a cool, windy night. I was standing in the midst of Route 201 with Proffessor Rowan. We were studying the pokemon in the area, learning their daily routines and trying to experience the life of the pokemon there, and how they maintain natural order and harmony among each other. We had been out the whole day, just watching the pokemon live, as a family…a family I never had a chance to experience. I may not have said it, but deep down, I was jealous of the pokemon. All the pokemon seemed to live freely and happily. Running and playing with their young, and even with each other.

"Soul, I believe that's enough observation for today, can you give me a basic synapse of what we witnessed?" Prof. Rowan asked.

I let out a sigh. "The pokemon here learn how to coexist with one another through some sort of team effort. Take the bidoof and the shinx for example," I pointed at the shinx cubs and baby bidoof walking to 2 separate dens. "The bidoof and bibarel help the shinx and luxio obtain water, since shinx and luxio are electric type pokemon, water shorts out their power temporarily, making hunting for fish difficult. It appears in exchange for hunting fish to eat for the shinx, the luxio and shinx gather berries and other herbivore related foods for the bidoof. They work together to make ends meet and live happily among one another."

looked pleased with my response. "Now, what observations have you made for yourself? What do you think?" he asked.

This was a personal question. He wanted to see how I think, and feel. As he asked that question, I began to understand that we were not out here for studies, well, not completely. He wanted me to understand harmony, and the power of a bond.

"Hmph…my observation is this: Pokemon live together and help each other not out of kindness or respect, but out of necessity…" I began.

looked puzzled, "Oh, do go on" he responded.

"it's simple, if you have something I need, and I have something you need, we will work together to achieve what it is we want…as long as it is necessary, for example…" I pointed my direction away from the bidoof and shinx, looking at the spinarak and staravia. "The staravia sometimes hunt the spinarak, but the ariados sometimes hunt the starly. They pick at each other's young as a form of natural order. It seems cruel of coarse, but it is necessary as a balance of life" I said coldly.

let out a deep breath. "You are very right. Soul," he started making his way back toward sandgem town. "However, the balance is there for a reason. This is why pokemon evolve; they evolve so they can grow not in just physical, but a mental state as well! Their bonds to their families and friends and their homes are crucial. In order to protect said young, they fight. Do you see? Working together and protecting something you care about ARE the epitome of life itself," turned back to look at me "Without this a trainer, no, a being cannot grow into the being they are meant to become."

"hmph…" I grunted, and began to follow Prof. Rowan back home.

As we got back, we began to talk about the evolution of poliwag, and why it had 2 different final stage evolutions. We tend to debate and compare theory a lot. is very much like a new dad, and I respect him as such, even though we are completely unrelated. As we got to the front of the lab, stopped short at the steps. "Soul, I have virtually taught you everything I know about pokemon. It is time you started your journey. You must travel the land and learn your own way, and come up with your own ideals." He said.

As much as I knew he was right, I did not want to leave. The truth is I didn't want to go until i was absolutely sure i learned all i can. " …do you think I'm ready?" I said coolly. He nodded and opened the door to the lab. We walked through the door, and he lead me into the laboratory. He turned on the lights, and you could hear the computers starting up and machinery clanking into motion. We walked to the center of the room, where there was a single pokeball being held in a glass capsule. "We have been studying this pokemon for months, we learned a lot from it, and it has learned from us. It is an extremely rare pokemon to find, especially in its special coloring, a perfect choice for you to start with! It's proud, honorable, and loyal.

He crunched some numbers into the giant machine, and the glass opened up. He took the pokeball, and tossed it into the air. With a puff of smoke, the ball opened up, revealing a specially colored piplup. The piplup began rubbing its eyes, furiously chirping madly, as though angered from being awoken so late. handed me the pokeball. "Also, along your journey, I want you to record all your findings, and use this pokedex to help give you an edge in battle against powerful foes. Use it wisely and never lose it!" he said handing me a pokedex. The piplup looked confused.

"Piplup…" I walked over to it, and crouched near it, looking it in the eye. "From here on out, we will watch each others backs. We will grow strong; stronger than my parents, who died in vain. Together we'll take the league and anyone who gets in our way!"

The piplup eagerly stood up getting completely riled up with my motivational speech. "I need a leader, someone to take command when I am not around; who can lead as an example…You will be named Emperor, the commander of the team! Tomorrow morning we gather all our needs, and set out, us against the word, you with me?" I held out my hand to piplup. It nodded, and gave me its wing to shake, and I placed his pokeball on my waist. "Well now that is settled, I'm going to bed..." yawned , and he left the room.

I looked down at Emperor, and nodded. We left the room to head to bed, for tomorrow morning, our journey begins.

Soul, Age 18


	2. PokemonAdventures:Soul 2 Cave Crissis!

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I woke up early the next day. It was very dark outside, but the orange rays of the sun were creeping up in the horizon. I finished up the last bit of packing, a few potions, my map (just in case), a compass, a rope, the basic traveler needs. After washing up I threw on my favorite black hoodie, and walked back into my room where Emperor was still sleeping.

"Hey, wake up...It's time to move out…" I said coolly. Emperor woke up slowly, yawning and rubbing its eye. It hopped out of bed, and we left my room. As we walked down the steps, prof. rowan was waiting for me at the door. I attempted to walk past him, when he spoke.

"Soul, are you forgetting anything?" he asked. I shook my head no in response. Prof. Rowan sighed.

"I don't need to say good bye, we will be keeping in touch. If I need information I'll call, and I will keep you updated on my progress…" i opened the door and took one step out.

"The pokemon by the cave is what I meant…" he said. I paused again, and turned back to face

him. "I haven't forgotten about that…" I replied, and I finally left.

Emperor began to pull on the hem of my pants as we were walking. I looked down at it. It seemed to want to know what cave the professor was talking about. "This cave between Sandgem town and Jubilife harbors a ghost type pokemon. Prof. Rowan and I have studied it's activity for quite some time. It's pretty strong, and I'd like to catch it…" I said coldly.

Still dark outside, we walked into route 202. Emperor kept running all over the place, excited to be leaving Sandgem town. It kept running into random pokemon nesting areas and causing problems and all sorts of noise. I eventually got fed up. "HEY!" I barked. The wild bidoof chaseing Emperor fled at the sound of my voice. Emperor stood still, staring at me. "I want to travel discreetly. I do not want to attract any unwanted attention. We happen to be in a very docile habitat right now, so we are lucky. All the noise you are making could get us killed! Shut up, and stay close to me!" I growled as i turned and began walking again. Emperor saluted, and quickly followed me.

As we neared the cave I halted, and signaled Emperor to hide. We took cover in some nearby bushes. "Emperor Look…there are some men over there wearing masks…what are they doing…?" I asked. Emperor shrugged and chirped. We stood watch for a while, watching the men bring in large crate after large crate with their fork lifts. "Alright men! We moved enough of the devices into the cave! We'll seal it up so no one can get in!" said one of the men.

"Crap…we have to get in there and find Sableye…she's alone in their and probably scared…" I said to Emperor. Emperor nodded. "Use mist to give us some cover, we'll sneak in behind the machinery, go!" I said to Emperor. He chirped happily, holding his hands out. Suddenly, a thick fog began to set in. "Hey Boss!? The fog!" said one of the workers. "Forget the fog! This is better! Continue working, some morning dew won't stop our progress!" Emperor and I bolted into the cave unnoticed.

"Follow me closely, she lives deep inside…" I said, but as we moved deeper, we found more and more of these boxes. Something told me there was a problem. "Hold up…Emperor, use Peck, and open up one of these boxes." Emperor began to open them up, and I grabbed a flash light out of my bag. Inside the boxes were bombs. Thousands of different explosives were in every box. Something touched my shoulder, so I immediately grabbed the hand, and flashed my light on the source.

The Sableye panicked and let go of me, and began to run away. "WAIT! sableye! I'm here to help! It's me, Soul!" Sableye slowly drifted back, recognizing who I was. "It's ok, I promise…I won't…hurt you" but it was too late for that. Sableye appeared to have been brutally attacked. My face grew grim with anger, and emperor consoled the sableye, rubbing her wounds.

"I didn't care that they harbored these weapons here, it's not my concern…but when they hurt pokemon like this! I simply can't stand for it! Sableye I was gonna challenge you to a battle to see if you'd join me, but under these circumstances, I ask you join our team so we can end these thugs!" Sableye nodded in agreement, with a face of great determination.

"Good…it's payback time…" I pulled out a few of the potions I brought and nursed Sableye's wounds. We waited a few minutes for her to get better. "Ok! Sableye are there any other pokemon or people in this cave?" I asked her. She shook her head no and stood up.

"If memory serves me right, your moves were will-o-wisp, night shade and foul play…ability prankster…hmm I have an idea, Use will-o-wisp on all the boxes behind us, Emperor get in your pokeball! This is gonna get rough" Sableye ignited a few nearby boxes as i flipped my hood on. Then suddenly, BOOM! One box exploded, BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! A chain reaction started to follow. "Let's GO! TOWARD THE EXIT!" I yelled. I sprinted back the way we came, as sableye continued to ignite boxes we ran past.

"What the HELL was that!" said one of the workers. They peered into the cave, I ran right threw them, one of them turned their head to look at me, but I was pulling my hoodie over my face. I came to a sliding stop, and sableye circled around me. "YOU! WHAT WERE YOU DOIN IN THERE YER LIL BRAT!?" cried the leader. I stood up straight and smirked. "Giving you a dose of your own medicine..."i said in a cool voice, as i began to countdown, "5..4..3..2.." BOOOOOMM, BOOM, BOOOOOOOM, BOO,M BOOOM! The cave went up in flames! Rock and magma flew everywhere. "The weapons! The boss is gonna kill us all! Ok kid…today you die!" said one of the grunts. I dusted off my shoulder. "You guys? Beat me? Heh I'd like to see that happen!" I threw Emperor's ball onto the ground, and in a puff of smoke it appeared out of his pokeball. The grunts brought out there pokemon too, a bunch of zubat, raticate, ryhorn and grimer.

"It's all of us vs just you kid! No way you can beat all of us on your own, and if those are your only pokemon, you're in real deep!" yelled another grunt. "Hmph…" I grunted. He was absolutely right. I had an out however, most of these pokemon were frail attackers, and the ryhorn could be taken out by piplup. The few grimers are easy targets too…just gotta think…."Emperor! We need cover! NOW!" I yelled. Emperor chirped and let loose a mist even faster than the one before. "The mist! Boss I told you It wasn't natural!" cried a grunt. "Whatever! Just 'cause we can't see yer doesn't mean yer can get away! Get 'im..." he said in a dark voice.

They all roared and charged forward like idiots. Emperor, Saybleye and i were in the trees, dashing around looking for easy targets. I opened up the pokedex to check out the levels of all the pokemon, and their hp levels. The majority were low leveled, in the 10-15's range with pretty low hp. "these pokemon weren't very well trained…." I muttered. I checked Sableye's level, which was 23, and Emperor's which was 12. "This is good enough, Sableye! Hover over the crowds and use night shade on all the stragglers! Don't let up! Emperor, we'll be hoping around to make it seem as though we are attacking from everywhere, spam those bubble beams!" i commanded

We did just as planned; group by group we took out the pokemon and the trainers. As they were attacked by piplup, they ran into the constant night shades. Since the zubats and raticate have lower hp stats they fell easily, it took a while longer to get the grimer. The Ryhorn wore severely weakened but that didn't matter since the trainers got knocked out as well. The mist finally cleared and we walked out into the clearing.

"Hehehe, yer pretty good fer a brat!" I quickly turned around and saw the leader, wearing a golden and white mask. "Your men are beaten, and you have no pokemon…so get lost…" I was bluffing. Emperor and Sableye were completely worn out by their constant attacking. I signaled to them to stay hidden so he couldn't see my disadvantage.

"So yer managed to take out meh henchmen! But do yer have what it takes to fight me?! Oho and don't go thinking that "mist" trick will work fer ya again! I see threw that nonsense, as I am still clearly here. I back stepped a little to gain some distance. Crap…this isn't good I thought. The enemy threw out a pokeball, and out appeared an Aggron! "Welcome to tha big bois runt!" he laughed maniacally. "Aggron! Head Smash, GO! Get this trash outta my site!" The Aggron roared and charged after me. I dodge rolled to the side, and pointed at the beast, "Emperor Bubble beam him!" I yelled.

The bubble beam connected with him from behind at a very close range. "Emperor! MOVE, STICK

AND MOVE!" I yelled, I got up and ran in the opposite direction, with Emperor by my side. The enemy trainer and Aggron began to pursue us. He doesn't know I still have sableye! It was to dark to notice a ghost type floating around! I need her will-o-wisp to cut this things strength! I thought. I turned around and Emperor followed. We were at the wreckage site of the cave again, with nowhere to run. Come on, get closer, just a little closer…I turned to Emperor to see his expression, and too my amazement he was unwavering! I looked around and saw Sableye waiting for my signal ready to strike.

They have absolute faith in me…I got myself together again and faced the masked man. Stall em, figure out their plan! "So what's your game! Why were you stockpiling weapons!" I demanded. The perp slowed down, and so did Aggron. "Fer money! Of coarse! We were gonna sell them to make some coin, but yer interfered with that plan, and we don't take kindly to that kid! So now we gonna take care of you and take yer piplup. Oh yes we'll take that differently colored chap and sell 'im fer a pretty dollar. That's seems like a fair trade! It's pretty powerful, too! Dealing some critical damage to meh Aggron! But enough! Aggron! Head Smash!" The Aggron charged again. "NOW!" I screamed. Sableye zipped in with blazing speed and used will-o-wisp before Aggron's attack could go off, and severely burned it. "RAWR?!" the Aggron screamed as it tripped over and skidded next to me.

Emperor and I jumped back, "Emperor bubble beam!" I said quickley, and Emperor doused him in a montage of bubbles. "Aggron!" the man growled. Sirens could be heard in the distance, and the sky was starting brighten up with an orange like glow. Perfect timing, I can taunt him now, he'll take the bait and take off…"The cops are on their way, your bandits and this cave will be found, and your schemes will be brought to the light. Nowhere to hide now…"I said coolly. The man laughed, "You think yer so smart, I have to take the bait, but killing you would be my pleasure. You took down one of my pokemon, but I have an entire team ready to trounce you! Yer lucky, I will report this to the boss…yer will be found…and yer will be killed…HAHAHAHA!" he laughed again, and retreated Aggron to its pokeball. He crunched some digits into his arm and transported himself away.

I grimaced at the thought of him having more pokemon in his arsenal...waiting to take me out. I looked down at my pokemon. "It's ok Soul, we could have taken him! We are elite!" said Emperor. "Yea! Did you see how we beat them? It was way too easy! I couldn't have done it without you Soul!" giggled sableye….. " :| what…what? How? When wth!?" I said in a surprised tone. Emperor and Sableye looked as thou nothing crazy happened. "What!? What did we do!?" they said in unison. The sirens grew louder. "No time to to talk, we have to dissappear " I said as the cops got nearer. We took off into the darkness of the forest, and headed to Jubalife City.


	3. PokemonAdventures:Soul 3 Enter Heart!

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The sun was shining brightly over the Jubilife City, as people littered the streets. It is always busy during the day, and even more so at night. Tourists from other regions come here for the attractions and the fun activities. I walked down the streets, searching for a pokemon center. I kept my hood on in case anymore of those weird men were lurking around. I thought about the masked man i battled, he still had 5 more pokemon…and we barely took down one…in fact we merely crippled it before it fell…

Many thoughts were running through my head. How could I have done better? Did I push my pokemon too hard in their first battle? Will they take a while to recover? I glanced down at my waste to look inside the pokeballs. Sableye and Emperor were fast asleep. Man I worked them too hard…and put them in so much danger…and still, they were more than ready to lay their lives on the line for my sake…

I continued searching for a pokemon center, passing by many families with their children, and thousands of couples eating ice cream, playing games. Hmph…who needs all that nonsense…all I need is strength! The power to crush anyone who gets in my way! i thought, as i bumped into a kid. "'Scuse me sir!" cried a little girl. I partially turned my head to see that there was group of kids approaching me. "Mister, mister! We can see your pokeballs on your waste! Can we play with your pokemon mister!?" said one of the boys. The kids gathered around me, laughing and giggling pulling on my pants leg.

I let out a sigh. "No, I'm busy…they are injured and I need a pokemon center…" I said in an annoyed tone. "Oh! Mister we know where it is! We can take ya there if ya want!" said another girl. The kids agreed pulling my hand. Do I trust them? Just cause they are kids doesn't mean they can't be tricked into leading me somewhere. However, I was lost and did need the help, since i never explored Jubalife City on my own before. "Hey! You guys! We should ask for something in return! Yea he has to give us something!" said the boy. Their eager little eyes all turned to me, looking for some sort of reward.

"Hmph…I'll let you be my friend, and i'll buy you guys ice-cream, deal?" I said reluctantly, they all cheered and skipped as they led me to the center. We eventually bought the ice cream, and as I traveled with them, I found out that they were orphans that were staying with an ill step mother at the moment. She was sick at home, but the doctor said she just needed some rest. They talked about how they were scared of losing her, and how great of a mom she's been to them . They eventually became comfortable enough with me to introduced themselves. The two girls were Lani, and Susan, and the boy's name was Peter.

I took a breath of relief, and wound up talking with them more. "Cherish your step mom always, ok? She sounds like a nice lady…" I said. "Yea! She helps us make all sorts of goodies like cupcakes and cookies! And she lets us eat them all!" they were having a grand time, just by being near me. I understood them completely, knowing the pain of loss, and not having our real parents.

We got to the pokemon center. On the outside it looked pretty small, but when we walked through the sliding doors, it was huge! There was hundreds of people running about, and lounging in the dining areas. Television sets were on all over the place, and the nurses were taking care of pokemon left and right. The pokemart was in the center too, so I wound up stocking up on potions and stuff. The kids wound up leaving me, something about the street lights; they also managed to get me to agree with getting on television and battling for them live. They told me that they lived in the Little Rock Nursery School for Orphans, and to call them when i could, and talk about my adventures. I don't know why, but i wound up getting attached to these kids,and accepted their request, as we said our good-byes.

I walked over to a pretty woman with pink hair behind the counter, "Nurse Joy, my pokemon are worn out, can you please look at them for me?" I placed my pokeballs in a tray. Nurse Joy looked at the pokemon, and gasped. "Oh my! These pokemon look exhausted! You need to take care of them better! What's wrong with you!" she said grabbing them up and rushing into the next room closely followed by a chansey.

I shrugged and went to take a seat in the corner, near one of the televisions. The news reporter came blaring in, "This just in! Right outside Jubilife city is a huge detonation site, allegedly there was an explosion, due to heavy artillery catching fire. About twenty Syndicate thugs were found near the location knocked out awaiting police. Officials only had this to say."

The view shifted over to a police officer, "The reason for the fire is unknown, but we did find illegal weaponry stored deeper in the remains of this cave. They were gonna use it as a form of storage to keep their smuggled goods, and sell them in the black market, Somehow they were thwarted and struck down, but the whereabouts of this vigilante are unknown."

The reporter returned to the screen, "That was live at the outskirts of Jubilife city, we are still unaware as to how and why this happened, but we are happy that these Syndicate thugs were brought to justice. Will this vigilante show up again in time of need? Or was this just a fluke, either way we'll get the story here first! On to other news for today…"

Hmph…vigilante, huh? I thought to myself. Is that what they call a good deed? I didn't really care for what Syndicate was planning; it was just unforgivable as to how they attacked my sableye. They had no regards to her life, so I taught them a painful lesson….which I luckily got out of alive. "Your pokemon are ready sir! The piplup was pretty hurt, but your Sableye oddly appeared to be fine! Anyway, there is a room ready for you to rest in for a while, with pokemon food! First door on your right, please help yourself!" said Nurse Joy as she brought me my pokemon.

I went into the room and locked the door, and released Emperor and Sableye from their pokeballs. I thought about why sableye was perfectly healed up, but I neglected to ask. They stretched and yawned, eating the food on the bed. "Can you both…still talk?" I asked. Emperor looked at me with a snotty face "I don't know can you still breathe?" it laughed. Sableye giggled as she ate. "Since when could you guys talk…and why now all of a sudden?" I questioned sternly. Both pokemon looked at each other and shrugged. "We tried speaking to the nurses, but they just kept gawking at my "beautiful feathers" and kept rubbing my head. Seems only you can listen to us" Emperor said annoyed.

Sableye floated up to me, "We've known you for a while and…well…you were so cool this morning that I kinda felt like we bonded! maybe that's got something to do with it?" she placed her head on my chest, hugging me. "Yea man, I felt like I couldn't lose the way you barked out those orders and we took down the bad guys! Man I felt like such a bad ass!" said Emperor jumping on the bed, shadow boxing and flipping as if he were dodging something.

I get it…so somehow when I further my bond with my pokemon…I can hear them speak…but how? When did I get such an ability? I thought. "Unanswered questions will have to remain unanswered for now. First things first, it's time we take the sinnoh league challenge…" I pulled out my map and laid it out on the bed. Sableye and Emperor huddled around me.

"Oreburgh City is 10 minutes from here, all we have to do is pass through Oreburgh Gate. We will go there, defeat Roark, and move on back here to spend the night. I would say training is in order, but the battle we had was more than enough of a warm up so I know what you guys can do and how well you can handle yourselves in battle," I looked at Emperor and Sableye, they were listening attentively.

"I don't think I need to say it, but if you listen to my commands without hesitation, success will follow us. As a team, as a unit, we can carry out our missions quickly and precisely. I will listen to any and all of your requests, and I will answer to those requests as best as possible. Of course, I am team leader, and Emperor here will be team captain. So if we are ever to separate, Emperor will take command, is that clear?" They both nodded.

"Good, also from now on, Sableye's code name will be Huntress, and we will refer to her as such." Huntress giggled at the name, "Oh my! How vicious! you try to make me sound so murderous! Do I look scary enough to pull off that name?" she giggled. Emperor laughed, "No way! That's too good! Huntress? There is no hunter instinct inside of her haha!"

"Need I remind you that we only defeated Aggron because of her ability in prankster, her will-o-wisp, and her night shade attack. She dished out just as much, if not more, damage than you did, blind firing bubble beams into a crowd, leading them into her night shades. From what I can tell she did most of the work." I said coolly. She giggled again, and Emperor scratched his head blushing. "Well then we have been here long enough, let's head over to oreburgh gate..." i said, as we left the room.

-Oreburgh gate, half hour later

As I approached Oreburgh gate, with Emperor by my side, we could see a crowd of people standing at the steps. "Wonder what's goin on?" said Emperor. "Probably something not worth our time…" I retorted, as I flipped my hoodie up.

As we got closer we could hear girls squealing and some dudes laughing, and in the center of the crowd was some pompous looking kid, wearing a huge grin on his face. I was about to walk past him, when I heard one of the girls say "OH wow! I can't believe you beat Roark so easily! You must be a great trainer!" I stopped and smirked.

"Yea well I walked in there and walked out like a boss! He couldn't handle my genius! I simply just rocked his world!" said the kid show boating. I turned to face the crowd; I was standing over them on the steps.

"Hey, you! Loser with the stupid grin! So you beat Roark huh?" I said mockingly. The crowd grew quite, and the kid turned to look at me with a frown. "Yea that's right, I have my first gym badge to show for it too! Why? You have a bone to pick with me or something?" he said turning around and walking up the steps.

"Why, no of course not! I'm just a rookie on his way to challenge the same gym! So I couldn't help but wonder," I started walking down the steps toward him with a grin on my face, "If I could beat the loser that beat him, I should surely win." The grin on our faces completely disappeared as we were staring each other eye to eye, in each other's face.

"You got some ballz callin me out like that in front of my peeps, like some kind of big shot," he looked down at Emperor, who was also wearing a face of determination. "Ha Ha! You haven't even evolved your starter yet! And you think you can take me! What an amateur!" he laughed, his crew started laughing with him.

"All I see is a punk who can talk a big game and nothing to back it up…" I said coolly. Emperor laughed, and the crowd went "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH." The kid became infuriated. "Two vs Two singles battle right now! Winner is decided when there are no usable pokemon left!" he started walking to the open field and stood there waiting for me. Ok, so if he just got a gym badge then his pokemon must be pretty high leveled. His pokemon most likely consist of a fighting and/or ground type based on how easy he made the battle sound, since Roark has rock type pokemon i thought to myself.

"So choose your first pokemon! And no switching! We go till one is unable to battle! Monferno, Spotlight!" his monferno ran into the center of the field. The crowd of kids surrounded us, talking in anticipation for a good battle.

"Emperor, it's time to show him why you are far superior than any king…" I said snidely "I will take this guy down in a heartbeat, watch me closely!" he said to me walking onto the field. "Both players ready?" said a cute girl. "By the way, what's your name? Mine is Blaze Heart! My friends call me blaze, but you can call me Heart!" he said with a cool grin holding up a thumbs-up. I glanced at him and made eye contact. "My name is unimportant, just like you" I said coolly. "BEGIN" yelled the girl.

"Monferno he has type advantage, but its weak! Mach punch, go!" Monferno rushed forward at great speed, but Emperor was able to dodge it. "Use Mist now!" I exclaimed. Just like before a huge mist covered the field. "Cheap tricks won't help you win! Monferno use swords dance!" monferno began to glow as it focused its fighting stance, breathing steadily. "Emperor, use your Bubble Beam! Hit him from all directions!"

Monferno began getting bombarded by a barrage of bubble beam blasts, unable to detect where the hits were coming from. "Monferno! Use foresight!" Heart cried. Monferno began scanning the area, and successfully located Emperor's whereabouts. "Now zero in with mach punch!" he declared, grinning. Monferno also grinned as it leaped at Emperor with full speed. Emperor was still air borne from his last bubble beam attack! "Emperor do a 360 degree spin and grab his arm!" I said quickly. Emperor narrowly escaped full damage from the mach punch, and successfully grabbed his arm and threw monferno toward the ground.

"Now use bubble beam and finish him with your peck attack!" I exclaimed. Emperor sent monferno crashing into the ground as he was bombarded with more bubbles, and then he slammed into him head on with his peck attack as he was on the ground. "OOH OH GAH!" cried the monferno in pain. It laid there unconscious. Emperor struggled to stand, as he was still hit with that powerful mach punch. Emperor held up one of his wings, "YEA! Taken out like a friggin champ!" it said happily, as it started to glow.

"Woah!", "Ah!" the crowed was awed by Emperor's transformation, as he finally evolved into a Prinplup! I opened my pokedex up to scan monferno's and piplups data. They were both now level 23, meaning Emperor gained a lot of exp. with that battle. His new moves were Metal Claw, and Drill Peck, and he still had bubble beam and mist.

"Great work Emperor, well played" I said commending his effort, "Couldn't of done it without you, partner!" he said in response as he returned to my side. Heart was dumb struck as to how I won, "Aren't you gonna put your prinplup in its ball to rest?" he questioned angrily, as he retreated his fallen monferno. I shook my head no, "The pain he felt in this battle will serve as a reminder to his triumph, he will bear it like a trophy, and grow stronger in endurance by doing so." I said. The crowd began to cheer for Heart. "C'mon Blaze, knock out his next pokemon! He's not tough, his prinplup is clearly finished which means you have this in the bag!" Heart nodded and threw his next pokeball. With a puff of smoke, a Gible appeared and took center of the field.

"Ok Gible! We have to avenge monferno! We been threw a lot so you and I can work as a team much better! And we'll teach this jerk a thing or two about strategy!" he said anxiously.

Hmph another physically based pokemon, piece of cake "Huntress, Let's end this!" I threw Huntress' pokeball out, and with a puff of smoke, she appeared. "Battlers ready!?" said the girl again. Heart and I were locked in a staring contest, neither of us dared to blink, "Fight!" she exclaimed. "Gible GO USE DIG!" he screamed. "Heheh, Huntress use will-o-wisp!" I said conceitedly. With blinding speed, Huntress appeared in front of Gible before it could even dig. She giggled as she let off her will-o-wisp attack, severely burning Gible. It let out a loud screech in pain.

"No! Gible! What did you do?" he cried angrily. "I burned it, it will take damage passively, and it's attack power is diminished…now use foul play!" With great power, Huntress slammed her claw into the fallen Gible. "Wha-, But how can it do so much damage! It doesn't look very strong!" Heart said confused. I began to smirk and huntress began to giggle. "That's my power! To use your own against you! I'm just one tricky damsel!" Huntress said giggling, of course they couldn't hear her but myself.

"Maybe a third rate battler like yourself should do more research on pokemon abilities and combat strategy..." I said mockingly. The atmosphere grew dense, as the home team was losing at the home game. I looked around, with my hoodie still on. "What's the matter? No more cheers for your third rate champion? Don't make me laugh! You let wining some gym badge deter you from understanding what that victory really meant!" I said, pointing at Heart. "You and your pokemon TOGETHER won that badge, not one time did I hear you thank or even accredit them for the victory!" I began to get angry.

"You, together, worked as one! And you so easily forgot that working together is what helped you win in the first place! That's why I'm standing here, whooping your tail, because you forgot the most important attribute of being a trainer!" the crowd grew quiet as Huntress hovered by my side, and Emperor nodded in agreement. Heart listened to what I was saying, and took it to the heart; he closed his eyes and grinned. "You're right; I should have been more humble about it…But there is still a chance I can win! And there is nothing saying I can't start appreciating my comrades now! You with me Gible!" he said smiling down at his Gible.

Gible steadily stood up and nodded in agreement, letting out a screech of agreement. "Then Go! Use dig again!" Gible immediately dug into the ground at a great pace. "Here he comes Huntress, get ready!" I said to her. She nodded and went back out to the center of the field, looking around waiting for Gible to resurface.

Suddenly, Gible came bursting out of the ground behind Sableye, "Huntress Watch out!" I cried. "Too late! Gible take it down!" grinned Heart. Gible grabbed Huntress and slammed her into the ground, "Did you forget your attack strength has been weakened!" I declared. "Yea I know! But I got a move that doesn't use attack strength! Just the might of a dragon! and at this range it can't miss! GO DRAGON RAGE!"

Gible let out a burst stream of power, erupting at point blank range. "AHH!" cried Huntress, and a huge dust cloud kicked up. I shielded my eyes, and you could hear the girls in the crowd squealing trying to keep their skirts from flying up. The smoke steadily cleared and Gible was huffing and puffing, standing over a weakened Huntress. She steadily tried to get up, but she only moves fast when using non-aggressive moves, thanks to prankster. "Alright Gible! One more time!" Heart declared happily, as it began charging up for a second attack. Then I remembered what Nurse Joy said earlier! FLASHBACK:"The piplup was pretty hurt, but your Sableye oddly appeared to be fine!

"Huntress! Use Recover and MOVE!" I cried. Huntress immediately recovered her health, and was able to quickly run out of the blasts range. "What!?" exclaimed Heart, "Quick! Counter with Foul Play again!" I said quickly. Gible was too weak to move out of the way, so Huntress quickly slammed her claws into him with tremendous force, knocking the pokemon out on the spot. I let out a sigh, Man that was close….This kid is capable of dishing out some serious damage! If he fought like that from the beginning I don't know if I could have really won…

Heart let out a sigh, and we both retreat our pokemon to their respective pokeballs.. The crowd began to clap and cheer loudly, rushing to their champion's side. He let out a hearty laugh as they said how cool he was and remained calm under the pressure. "He's a worthy rival…" said Emperor. I nodded in agreement with a smirk. "Yea, we definitely have to train harder, people like him are the only opponents we'll ever see."

We began to walk away toward the gate, when Heart finally broke away from his fans. "Hey," he said "you never did tell me your name." I turned around and faced him, removing my hood, "The name is Soul, and the next time we meet, I will surely pummel you as I just did…" I said coolly. Heart began to grin "The next time we meet, I will be fully synced with my team! I'ma make you wish you never taught me that little lesson, because I'ma make you eat those words!" he held out his fist in my direction. I smiled slightly, and gave him a fist bump, and walked through Oreburgh Gate, headed to my next challenge.


	4. PokemonAdventures:Soul 4 Mine Night!

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It was late in the afternoon, the sun was setting and the breeze was cool. Emperor was steadily walking by my side, "You're a pretty tough kid, you know that Soul?" said Emperor.

"I do what's necessary, that is all" I answered. As we walked into Oreburgh City, we could see dust picking up from the dirt roads. It was quiet; people were in their homes settling in, ready to call it a day. The pokemon center was pretty close to the Entrance, so we stopped there.

We walked in, and the place seemed deserted. A single TV was on, and Nurse Joy was vacuuming the rug. "Why hello!" she greeted.

"Hey…can you take quick look at my pokemon nurse?" I asked. She nodded and smiled, and took Huntress and Emperor with her. While she's doing that, I thought, I'll go check out the gym. I left the center, and started heading for the Gym. It was completely dark out now, so I pulled out my flash light and my map from my bag. It took me a while to find the Gym, but when I got there I realized it was closed. There were a couple of people, a man with a camera and a woman with a microphone, standing at the front door, arguing with the gym receptionist.

"What do you mean he left?! He had an appointment with us today at this time!" said the lady with the microphone. Hmph…news cast people, I thought as I threw on my hoodie. "Roark stepped out! He'll be back in a little bit! He said he had an urgent matter to attend to!" said the lady. "Hey…what's goin on? I came to challenge Roark to a Battle." I barked at them as i walked up. All three of them looked my way.

"This is great! We can actually get what we wanted after all!" happily squealed the news reporter. She and her camera guy ran up to me, "I'm Lawna Baker! And this is my camera man Charles! We work for the new TV channel Trainer Watch! We video tape trainer battles on the go and record gym challenges! Our plan is to find up and coming trainers in today's society, and inform the people who to follow!" she said holding her hand out.

I didn't reach my hand out to shake hers. I walked right around her and approached Roark's receptionist. "Where did he go, I want to get my badge and leave…" I said in a mean tone. The lady looked quite cross, "HE STEPPED AWAY! He'll be back tomorrow! then you may challenge him! SHEESH! Now if you people continue to bother me I will call the cops!" she put a closed notice on the door and slammed it shut.

Note to self…prepare to absolutely savage Roark in a battle since you can't wring the secretary's neck, I thought. I started walking back to the pokemon center. "Sir, Wait! You are a trainer, aren't you?" asked the Lindy, with her cameraman following close by, "Can we have a quick interview?" she asked. I turned around ready to tell her off, but then I thought of the kid's at the orphanage, and the promise I made.

"Hmph…you said you work for a tv channel right? For talented trainers?" I asked swiftly. Lindy nodded. "Sure I'll answer a few questions…Make them quick I'm in a hurry, got it?" I said coolly. Lindy signaled Charles to roll the camera, "As a trainer, what is your goal?" Lindy held the mic out for me to respond. "That is simple…I'm going to dominate each and every Gym Leader, then I will raid the pokemon league…Once that is done, I will fight the Elite 4 and take down Cynthia herself and becom the new Sinnoh Champ…" I replied. Charles' and Lindy's jaws dropped. "Su- Such a bold claim! How do you expect to back that up?" she asked startled by my response.

"Simple, I will train my pokemon and myself, we will fight as a team, work together to take down every enemy we come across. We are elite in the making, and we will be the next champions to walk the Sinnoh Region." Charles and Lindy looked at each other. "Well, what was your name again?" she asked. "The name is Soul…" I replied. "Why yes, Soul, do you mind if we watch your gym challenge tomorrow?" she asked. I nodded yes, and turned to leave. "Wait! We have more questions!" she said quickly. I stopped walking, "You got more than enough out of me, Be there for my battle with Roark tomorrow, it will be a real scoop…" I said, and I walked off.

I Returned to the pokemon center, and picked up my pokemon. I decided to rent a room for the night, so I can rest and plan for the battle with Roark. What pokemon will he use? What's his battle strategy? I pondered. Emperor and Huntress your too busy running around and enjoying themselves. "How can you have this much fun when we have an important battle coming up?!" I growled at them. They stopped playing and looked at me. "AWWWWW! I think Soul is cranky!" said Huntress, falling into a swoon. Emperor began laughing hysterically, "Yea! Bro relax! We can take that chump, just like all the other trainers we washed!" he exclaimed happily, puffing out his chest. Huntress hovered over to my side, giving me a hug, "Soul! We will help you win! We have faith in you!" she said squeezing me tightly.

I let out a sigh, getting ready to respond, when suddenly; KRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAH BOOOM!

I turned quickly, and leaped toward the window to see what happened outside. "What the hell was that" I asked hastily. Emperor and Huntress followed me closely. "We gonna go check it out?" asked Emperor. I shook my head. "Not our problem really, I'd prefer not getting involved…" I said coolly. Emperor got upset, "CMON! Let's just have a little fun!" he said grinning. I looked down at him. "You know what, let's check it out…it may be a Syndicate operation like last time…I want to study their movements and group formations…Figure out what they really are after…" I said, reminding myself about the last battle I almost lost.

"WHOOOO! Now we're talkin!" exclaimed Emperor, getting my bag and stuff ready. I put on my sweater, and threw up the hood, while Huntress retreated into her pokeball. I put on my back pack, "We'll figure out what Syndicate is really after, Listen up Emperor, this is a recon mission, we will not get involved unless needed be, understood?" I said sternly. Emperor grinned "Yeah, yeah! Hey come on let's not miss the party!" he exclaimed as he opened the door for me.

Oreburgh Mines- hour later

Emperor and I crept through the darkness, making sure we were unheard. The front gate to the mine zone area in the outskirts of town was blasted open. "It looks like a fire type pokemon heated it open…" I said to Emperor, examining the blast marks on the gate lock. "Yea no kidding…Whatever did that packs some serious power…" he replied quietly. Explosions could still be heard in the area. "Stay close…"I said to Emperor, pulling my hood further down to cover my eyes, "Godspeed…" Emperor said softly.

We both sprinted into the darkness, using the shadows as our cover, getting closer to what sounded like a war zone. "Up there!" I said, signaling Emperor to travel on the pipelines above us. We jumped up onto a nearby bulldozer. I boosted Emperor up, so he could grab the pipe, and he swung me up. We followed the pipeline to the center of the mine zone to find a crowd of Syndicate members, surrounding what appeared to be Roark, and another mysterious person.

"Roark! Fancy meeting ya way out here?" said one of the Syndacite members. "That voice…" I whispered. It was the man with the Gold and White mask! "Your plans to establish a base in the mines are over! We are ending this now!" said the mystery person. He looked about my age and had white hair with blue goggles, silver eyes, and a long blue scarf, partially covering his mouth. Hmph…who's this punk next to Roark? I thought to myself. The Syndicate members had a bunch of houndour and sandslash with them this time. "I see…so they use pokemon based on the operation at hand…which means the zubat was for locating more room in the cave to store things, the raticate helped dig, ryhorn broke down big rocks, and grimer helped dissolve the rock heaps…These guys are professionals after all, huh?…" I said to Emperor.

"I'm curious as to how yer think you can stop us? Me men are packing heat, eh? But alas! you got us all wrong! We aren't here to take this dump as our base!" the other Syndicate members began to laugh. "No! we are here for the fossils mate!" The man said pointing toward a huge vault further behind them.

"You'd be crazy if you thought I'd let you get away with even one of my fossils!" declared Roark, standing next to his Rampardos, "I'd Rather die before handing out my hard earned and dug up research to a group of low-life thugs!" the Syndicate members laughed again. "Why, of course mate!" the masked man checked his watch, "We best be moving, right to it then! Just give us what we want," said the man, jokingly at first, "And we won't have to kill ya…" he said in a darkened voice.

Things got real quiet...like the calm before a storm. "Roark, I already called for back-up, help is on the way, so we have to buy some time…" said the kid calmly. "Thanks, Psyche…no matter what, I'm glad to have been fighting by the side of a trainer like you,"

So, the kid's name is Psyche…Well Psyche, let's see how you handle this kind of threat, I want to see what your made of! I thought to myself. "Yer know! I never did get to introduce meh self! The name's Greiger! And I am the Captain of the organization named Syndicate! And today, lassies! You face yer deaths!" Greiger then tossed a pokeball to the ground, and with a cloud of smoke a Magmortar appeared! Greiger then pointed at Psyche and Roark, "GET THEM!" he said evilly.

"ROARK SHEILD YOUR EYES!" exclaimed Psyche over the vicious barking and the cries of the Syndicate thugs charging forward. Suddenly, out of the Psyche's shadow, Gengar appeared! "Gengar! I need a large scale Hypnosis! NOW!" Gengar laughed a sinister laugh as a hypno beam spanned the entire crowd stopping all the pokemon and their trainers dead in their tracks, as they dropped like flies. Hmph, not bad at all kid, I thought to myself. Quick way to crowd control, this kid is damn good.

As the men had moved forward to attack, Greiger retreated further into the mine. Psyche and Roark began to give chase, "Gengar! Stay behind and keep them occupied with dream eater! Anyone gets up knock them back out with hypnosis! I'm counting on you!" Psyche said as he ran off. I got up and tailed the trio from above on the pipelines, making sure I didn't miss a single detail. "Soul! Should we stop Greiger?" Emperor growled. I waved my hand out, stopping Emperor from moving. "Not yet, I need more data on Roark's and Psyches battle technique!" I said coldly.

"Magmortar! Fire Blast! Bring down those doors!" Greiger cried. Magmortar held out its arm and spewed hot lava out before them, melting down giant steel doors blocking their getaway path. "Not so fast! Rampardos, Stone edge!" cried Roark, as rampardos shot out rocks from nearby like bullets. The firing from that distance may have restricted Greiger and Magmortar's movements, but there was no way to get a clean hit. Roark's Rampardos lead them to a dead end, a cavern with thousands of boulders and rocks stockpiled up high. Seems Roark likes to keep his opponents locked in, giving them less options to work with, I thought. Greiger and Magmortar finally stopped, and so did Roark and Psyche, a few feet away from him. I kept a low profile from above, out of site and out of mind. "Emperor, in you ball" I said sternly. "But, I want to see this clearly!" he protested. "NOW!" I replied sharply, and I returned him into his pokeball.

Sirens could be heard approaching the site. "Hear that Greiger?! You're cornered, and your goons are all out cold! You won't escape! None of you Syndicate thugs will!" shouted Psyche. Greiger began laughing hysterically. "What a bloke! Yer don't maybe think I wanted to lead you's here to ye deaths?" Greiger said grinning. "What the hell would Syndicate want with yer fossils other to make money!? Ye can just die with yer rocks! Magmortar! Use yer earthquake!"

Magmortar stomped its feet, and the earth began to shake. Suddenly, Roark and Psyche's legs were swallowed up by the earth, and the pokeballs on their wastes fell to the ground out of reach due to the seismic activity! Magmortar than gave Greiger a boost to the top of the cliff. Greiger retreated Magmortar back into its pokeball, then re summoned it next to him. "Psyche, ye have been a thorn in Syndicate's side fer quite some time, so we opted to eliminate ye" he said grinning. I readied myself to throw my pokeball.

"Sweet dreams, lassies! Magmortar, Use yer Earthquake!" right as he said that I Launched Emperor's ball to land right in front of Psyche and Roark, "Emperor Use mist and combine it with your bubble beam to freeze the rocks!" I exclaimed. Emperor erupted from the pokeball in a puff of smoke, immediately doing as I said. Before the rocks could fully fall, they were glazed over, frozen in place.

The mist and bubble beam combination surrounded the area in a crystallized mist that swirled around. I ran forward a little, and jumped off the pipeline, landing right next to Emperor within the mist. "WHAT!? YOU! NOT AGAIN!" screamed Greiger angrily, the sirens echoed loudly in the mine area, getting louder and louder. "GRRR! You hooded freak! You'll pay for this and the time in Jubilife, yer HEAR ME! MAGMORTAR SMOKE SCREEN!" a thick fog formed at the top of the cavern, and Greiger disappeared.

"Thanks! If you hadn't of dropped by when you did…I don't even want to think about it! Thanks a lot!" exclaimed Roark. I partially turned to see Roark and Psyche still stuck. "You both lost that battle…because of your lack of discipline!" I exclaimed. "You dropped your guard because you thought you had him, now look at you! You both almost died!" I was angry. I didn't want to have to step in, I didn't want to be seen by the Syndicate again…was it perhaps I was scared? I shook it off, "You both are weak..." I said coldly. Roark bowed his head in shame. "Hold on! What gives you the right to talk down on us like that! Hey! Don't turn your back on me!" cried Psyche, as I started to walk into the shadows. "What's your name!" he shouted. I turned to him again, "Sorry, I don't talk to dead people…" I said coldly, and I disappeared into the night.

Psyche growled angrily. "DAMMIT!" he exclaimed, as Roark fell silent. "Hey don't feel bad, we did good work!" Psyche said reassuringly. But Psyche continued to echo Soul's words in his head. "Who was that kid?" he thought to himself out loud. He couldn't help but think, this is definitely not the last time he will see that mystery kid with the hoodie!


	5. PokemonAdventures:Soul 5 Emperor's Rise!

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The next day swung by rather quickly. I woke up in the room that I rented at the pokemon center. Emperor and Huntress slept close to me, but Huntress was practically squeezing me. As I sat up I rubbed my head. Images of the night before kept flashing through my head…All I could possibly think about was Greiger. His intent to kill…and how he decided to do so without hesitation. His laughter rang in my head like the chime of a bell at a funeral.

Am I…Am I scared of Greiger? I pondered, as my eyes widened. I began to sweat as I thought about battling him again. "Dammit," I whispered to myself. I have to shake this feeling off; I can't allow the thought of losing to him cloud my mind. I hopped out of bed, and immediately started doing my routine morning exercise. Push-ups, sit-ups, basic calisthenics too keep my body strengthened and it gets the blood flowing.

Emperor woke up, and joined me in the morning exercise. "If I'm to be a captain, then I need to be strong like my leader…" he grunted as he worked with me. I smiled as we began working out even harder, pushing ourselves. "Nyaa…what are you guys doing~" moaned huntress, rubbing her eye and yawning. "Working out, come join us already!" growled Emperor. Huntress stretched and yawned really loudly "Ok!" she replied happily, and she joined us in the work out. After we finished, I showered up and packed my back preparing to leave. I had emperor and Huntress clean the room and make the bed, to help them learn discipline and to learn that making huge messes requires someone to clean it up. We left the room, and headed to the lobby.

"Hey! People are gathering at the gym! Do you know why?" said a really cute girl to one of her friends. "Yea," responded another, "Roark is gonna have a huge battle with this awesome trainer today! The time wasn't set, but everyone is anxious to see this new trainer!" one of the boys in the group shook his head. "What's so special about some guy? He's probably getting over hyped!" he said. His homeboys laughed with him, but another girl responded. "Well Lawna Baker, from Trainer Watch TV, isn't a liar! She said this guy is good, and even had an interview The one and only Heart!"

Hmph…I guess Heart really is famous, I thought to myself, sitting at a nearby table to continue listening. I gave Emperor some money to buy food for us, and flipped my hoodie up so I wouldn't be noticed. "Whoa, no way! You mean the Heart that beat Roark! Roark was undefeated for a very long time! Till Heart swung by a scrapped up a win! I tell ya that was one rough battle! Didn't seem like heart could do it until his chimchar evolved!" they all agreed in succession, until another girl piped in, "But here is the thing! Heart said he battled this person, er I think his name was Soul? Yea it was Soul! Heart battled this person, and he said he lost without a single win!"

The table grew really quiet. "We have to go see this battle!" said one of the boys, and the whole group got up and left. Emperor finally came back with the food. "Emperor…I have to go make a phone call, protect yourself and huntress till I get back…" I said coldly, as I got up and left.

I looked up the number for the Little Rock Orphanage in the directory, and called the number. It rang a few times, than finally the screen turned on and showed a Young woman. "Uh, Hello?" she asked looking at me. The woman had a glazed expression over her face, as if she just woke up, she also had res hair and red eyes that were half open. I took off my hood, "Hi, yes um…My name is Soul, I wanted to know if your step children were home?" as I said that Lani jumped in her lap to look at the screen. "Who ya talkin to mo- HEY!" said the little girl.

"Hey, EVERYBODY! Big Brutha Soul is on the phone!" she yelled out loud. Peter and Susan swarmed to the phone, bombarding the Woman as they all were trying to look at the screen at once. They were each talking so fast and in abundance that I couldn't hear what anyone was saying. When did I become a big brother? I thought to myself, "Hey! HEY! Quiet down already!" I said in a stern voice. They quieted down, beaming at me with faces of pure joy.

"My, my!" began the mother, "These kids spoke very highly of you, Soul!" she said smiling. "Yea…well they helped me find my way around in Jubilife when I was lost…no big deal" I said coolly. The mother smiled at me, "I'm glad you called! They stayed up later than usual last night and saw your interview on Trainer Watch TV! You've become quite the famous trainer! Literally over night!" she said, beaming at me. "Yeah, well about that…I'm gonna be battling Roark on TV really soon, and I promised I'd call to let them know whenever I was gonna be on TV." I said rubbing my head.

"OK! Soul we won't miss it, will we kids?" she said smiling to the children. "No!" they said in unison. "Yea…umm I gotta go, I have some last minute strategies to go over with my team…I'll call you guys after to hear what you thought of the battle or something..." I said. And I hung up the phone. I let out a deep breath and turned to see Huntress and Emperor standing behind me, with THE biggest smirks on their faces. "What?" I said. "SHE was pretty cute! Was that your secret crush?!" swooned Huntress. I began to blush, "No! not at all! she is older than me!" I said in protest. "Oho! My man Soul! Goin for dem older girls huh? Like em experienced =3=" Emperor said. "Oh shut the hell up!" I growled at them still blushing. They both started laughing hysterically as I made another call.

The phone rang for a few seconds, but then answered. "Why, hello there Soul, I expected to hear from you soon, How are you my son?" said quite happily. "I'm fine…" I muttered. I didn't know what to say to him, I called him to let him know I was safe, "You haven't changed…You also developed quite the knack for adventure, hm?" he said raising an eyebrow. I didn't respond. "Your little escapade in front of Jubilife City caught quite the amount of attention! And then your little speech on national television?"

I grit my teeth, "Fame is not the reason why I took those actions!" I said coldly. Prof. Rowan shook his head, "That is not what I'm implying. I'm glad you found reason to fight without personal gain in mind, but you have yet to discover the meaning between bonds! I have some more research I must attend to, do take care of yourself, Soul, and win that gym badge." he said with a straight face. I gave him a nod, and we both hung up.

"I missed the old man…Glad to see he's doing well…" said Emperor. "Yes, he was always nice to me!" beamed Huntress. I began pondering upon what he said. Have I not worked together with my pokemon enough? Have we not become one yet? I can even talk to them, and understand them, as proof of our bonds! So what more could there be…I shrugged it off, and ordered huntress back to her ball. We left the Pokemon Center, and headed for the gym.

Oreburgh City Gym, 15 minutes later…

The stadium was packed with people, and there was even a long line still outside the door. I didn't want to cause a scene, so I walked around to the back, putting my hood on. As I walked around the back, there was a huge gate prohibiting further access. Emperor simply hopped over it like it was nothing; I on the other hand used the wall to jump off of to grab the top of the gate. I climbed over it and landed on the other side. I dusted myself off, and walked up to the door in the back. Suddenly the door opened up, and Roark stepped out, followed by Psyche. They both looked at me as I stared emotionless-ly back at them. "Hmph, can't even use a door like everyone else...What are you some kind of hot shot?" said Psyche angrily. I simply smirked, "I remember saying something about not talking to dead people…" Emperor snickered by my side.

Psyche got even angrier. "You little shit! I'll let you in on a secret! My Scyther was on the side lines waiting for my signal! he has the move protect, so I was gonna use it to defend us from the rocks, follow up with double team to set up a diversion while it freed us, then create an assault tactic with one of my other pokemon after i recovered my pokeballs! In other words, you got in my way ass hole!"

"Hmph! Nice little strategy, but I'm very good at reading people, and the look in your eyes showed lack of discipline, and fear..." I said angrily. Psyche smirked; he knew he got to me. "That's pretty funny! Because when you finally revealed yourself after you pretty little entrance, I couldn't help but see you shaking in your boots! So who were you talking about really?" he said sarcastically. I threw off my bag, and we both stepped to each other's face, ready to swing. Emperor slid right behind Psyche ready to have my back, and His Gengar crept out of my shadow behind me in striking position.

"That's ENOUGH" declared Roark. Everyone stopped moving, but Psyche and I did not break eye contact. "The important thing is we got out of that alive, regardless who did what. I myself can say I was happy Soul was there, that just gave us more advantage, in case anything had gone wrong. We are on the same team here, don't forget that," Roark grabbed our shoulders, "besides he has a battle with me today, and I want to see what he can do at full potential!"

I brushed Roark's hand of my shoulder. "We aren't friends; I don't need either of you to fight my battles with or for me. My pokemon and I are strong enough to take down any threats we face on our own, if you guys wanna be my side kicks, too bad. I'm an A class act all on my own..." I said coldly. Emperor nodded, "Tell 'em Soul" he said in agreement. Psyche frowned, "You act so fuckin tough…Fine! We'll see what you can do against Roark, but you and me, we have unfinished business. And trust me, it won't be pretty…" he turned around and walked off, with his scarf flowing behind him. Roark sighed. "He's a bit of a hard head that kid, you both definitely don't do well together huh? C'mon let's head inside." Roark said, leading the way.

Inside Oreburgh Gym, Stadium Corridor, 10 minutes later.

As I was waiting for the National Anthem to finish up, Lawna Baker approached me, with her camera man. "Hey Soul, can we ask some quick questions for the record?" she asked with a smile. I glared at her, "get out of my face…" I said in an angry tone. She waved off the camera man, and turned back to me. "How about now? Is that better?" she said calmly. I didn't respond. "I just wanted to say good luck..and I really hope you are as strong as you say you are, I also have a message from Cynthia," she held up a note. I reached to take it, but she pulled it away and put it in her bra. "she said you can get it only if you win! it's apparently an invitation to training with her!" she said with a smile and a wink. I nodded to her, "Good! Give 'em hell out their!" she said, and she walked off.

"LAAAAAAAAAADIES AND GENTLEMAN!" declared the announcer, the crowd boomed with excitement and cheers. "TODAYS MATCH IS A GYM LEADER FEATURE MATCH!" exclaimed the announcer, "This episode is being aired live, on the Trainers Watch Channel! I'm your host, Jay Snider! And let's WELCOME THE MAN OF THE HOUR! TOUGH AS A ROCK, ROARK!" the crowed boomed again, as Roark walked out of his side of the field, waving at the crowed. Girls were squealing everywhere screaming "I love you's" to Roark.

"ANNND Today's challenger, the overnight sensation! SOUL!" he exclaimed. The stadium clapped for me, and threw out some whistles. I walked up to the stage, and put my hood up. The official walked up to the side of the stadium. "This battle is a 2 pokemon battle! Only the challenger is allowed to switch pokemon mid round! A player loses when BOTH pokemon are knocked out! Please send out your first pokemon!"

Rampardos is his ace…so I'm sure he'll send it out last, Huntress will be able to dismantle Rampardos…So I'll send her in last, I thought to myself. I looked down at Emperor. "You're Up first…Destroy him" I said coldly. Emperor grinned, "With pleasure!" he said as he hopped out to center field. Roark grabbed a pokeball from his waste. "Rhyhorn! I'm leaving it to you!" he said, as he threw the ball into the air. With a puff of smoke, Ryhorn appeared. It started snarling and kicking up dust with its feet, ready to charge.

"Trainers Ready...Begin!" cried the Official. Roark acted immediately, "Ryhorn, use Stealth Rock!" he said. Suddenly, giant stones from the field began to hover all around the pokemon. "Soul, I don't know what this is!" cried Emperor. "Don't worry about it! Stay focused!" I said to him. "Great job Rhyhorn, now go! Use mega horn!" he said. Rhyhorn began charging toward Emperor. "Emperor, use Bubble beam! That's Rhyhorn's Weakness!" I called out. Emperor immediately shot out bubbles from its beak in Rhyhorn's direction.

Roark began to smile. "That's it Rhyhorn! Just like we practiced!" he said. Rhyhorn began using the rocks from the Stealth Rock attack as cover! "Soul! I- I can't hit him!" said Emperor angrily. I smirked. Smart tactic to use the rocks for cover, but by doing so he revealed the purpose of stealth rock!

"Emperor! Stealth Rock can't hurt you, since he can't control it freely! it's meant to counter my ability to switch! But we can use the obstacles to our advantage as well! Try jumping off of them and making your way to Rhyhorn!" I exclaimed. Emperor nodded, and began jumping from rock to rock. He hopped over Ryhorn's head. "Crap! How did he figure it out so soon!" said Roark in an anxious tone. "I studied your style of battle last night at the mining area! Your style was to restrict one's movements to make up for lack in speed!" I said in a sarcastic tone, "It was easy to see through this trick! Too bad, Now I only need Emperor to win this battle!" The crowd cheered as Emperor effortlessly maneuvered around Rhyhorn's attacks.

"We're not done yet! Rhyhorn! Use Rock Blast! Combine it with the Stealth Rock Attack!" yelled Roark. The floating rocks began to wildly swing around, aiming at Emperor! Emperor narrowly dodged the first rock, "Soul Think of Something Fast!" he said, as he fired more bubble beam blasts. It was to no avail though, since Rhyhorn was able to guard itself with the stealth rocks.

Dammit! That defense is annoying I wish I could just smash through the rock…WAIT! That's it! "Emperor! Get as close as possible to Rhyhorn!" I called out. Emperor narrowly dodged another rock blast assault. "Are you CRAZY!? I can barely dodge his attacks from afar!" he replied, dodging another incoming rock. "DON'T ARGUE WITH ME JUST DO IT!" I bellowed, the crowed was going wild with anticipation. "Alright man! One penguin sandwich! Comin up!" he said, dashing forward.

"Rhyhorn! Don't let up! Use more Rock Blast!" commanded Roark. "GRAWWR!" cried Rhyhorn, sending more rocks after Emperor. Emperor jumped over the first rock, clung onto a nearby floating one, then jumped off of it to avoid the second incoming rock. It ran forward some more, and slid under the third one. He got up again and jumped to the side to dodge the fourth rock, jumped off that one and swayed out of the way of the fifth rock barely. He jumped up in the air above Rhyhorn.

"Rhyhorn! He's going to attack again! Shield yourself!" Roark exclaimed, and Rhyhorn covered itself in rocks. "That's it! Now Emperor, use all your might! FULL POWERED METAL CLAW!" I cried. Emperor grinned as its wing glowed with an orb of light, and it then coated itself in steel, "RAAAAHHH!" exclaimed Emperor as it came down with full force. There was a flash of white light that illuminated the whole gymnasium. CRACK! CRUMBLE! Emperor successfully broke through the rocks! The Rhyhorn was hurt by the metal claw attack in the process, "Finish it with bubble beam.

Emperor leaped back and showered Rhyhorn in a barrage of bubbles. Boom! Rhyhorn went flying back into the wall, and fell over unconscious. "Victory! Round one goes to Soul!" the crowed roared, as Roark returned Rhyhorn to its pokeball, "You did great Rhyhorn! You deserve a rest, bud!" HE said, placing the ball back on his waist. "Hey soul, sorry for doubting you man…" Emperor said taking in deep breaths. "Don't ever question me like that again!" I said coldly. Emperor looked kinda down, but he shook it off quickly.

Hmph! Pretty perceptive, Soul! However, it takes more than a sharp eye to win a battle, thought Psyche as he watched from the stands.

"Second round! Please choose your pokemon. "Ok Emperor, hustle back you can-" I began but Emperor cut me off. "No…Huntress can take Down Rampardos no problem; you and I both know that! But this…I have to finish this on my own! I want to get strong and prove my worth!" Emperor's face was full of determination. He wanted to fight on, even though he was already weakened. I sighed. "I hear you, you start taking too much damage, or if I see you getting any slower, you're out…" I said coldly. He nodded and walked back center field. People began to whisper and talk, "He's leaving his Prinplup in!" said one person. "Cant he see Prinplup is hurt!" said another. Roark looked worried, "Soul! Is it a good idea to keep Prinplup in? It can't take much more damage! It at least needs some rest!" he said to me. The stadium grew quiet.

I looked down at Emperor, but he did not turn back to face me. "You gave me your word, Soul, that you would honor my decisions as a Captain! This is my call! Let me have it!" he said. I smiled. "I will not change pokemon. His determination and strength will lead us to victory…I trust my partner! in fact," I pointed at Roark, "If you can take him down right now, I'll quit the challenge and go home!" I said with a grin. The crowd went wild, and Roark shook his head. "I'm sorry, but that's a terrible way to act as a trainer! You're too head strong, but I'll make you keep those words! Rampardos! It's Showtime!" Roark threw the ball at center stage, and with a puff of smoke, Rampardos appeared. Emperor stared up at the behemoth, unwavering.

"And soul," began Emperor, "Thanks for believing in me" he said. "Yea well you better take this guy down…You wanted the spot light Emperor, You got it..." I said coldly. "Trainers Ready…BEGIN!" This time I took initiative. "Emperor Metal Claw!" I cried, Roark was quick to counter, "Rampardos! Zen Headbutt!" Both pokemon charged forward and their attacks clashed. Each pokemon was pushing forward with all their might, but the power gave out! Boom! Both pokemon went hurtling backwards. "Don't let up! Use bubble beam!" I cried. Emperor began to fire off his attack, but Roark countered again! "Rampardos! Stone edge!" he declared, and both attacks canceled each other out.

Both pokemon landed on their feet, but they immediately charged back forward, as if they were magnets of opposite polarization. "Rampardos! Focus Energy!" he said, and rampardos began to glow! "Kraww!" it screeched as it charged. "Emperor! wait for my signal!" I said. "Rampardos! Zen Headbutt, GO!" declared Roark. Wait for it, I thought as Rampardos got closer. It got within 3 feet of Emperor, "NOW! Us drill Peck! Aim at its feet!" I bellowed. Emperor slid on the floor with its belly, as its beak began to elongate and glow. He then began spinning rapidly, and attacked Rampardos' legs, causing it to fall. "Quickly! Get up and rip him a new one with your bubble beam!" Emperor jumped up and fired off a stream of bubbles, colliding on Rampardos. Rampardos screeched in pain, and slowly stood up, "Finish it with metal claw!" I declared. Emperor charged after the weakened pokemon.

"Rampardos! Rock Polish and move!" quickly said Roark. Rampardos began to glow red, and it appeared to teleport out of harm's way! Emperor went crashing to the ground. Emperor slowly stood up, barely able to stand! "Emperor above you!" I tried to call to him, but he was completely dazed. "Finish it! Come down with Zen Headbutt!" Like a giant meteor, rampardos fell upon Emperor.

Luckily, Emperor looked up and was able to catch Rampardos midair, but when it landed, it continued to force its strength down on Emperor. Soul kept trying to yell out to him, however Emperor was too dazed. Welp…guess this is it, I got nothing left! All talk and no show…thought Emperor, as he began to buckle under the pressure of Rampardos' attack. Right as he was about to give up, he thought about Soul. Emperor then took a step back, balancing itself. No! I can't lose! I am an Emperor! This pokemon is beneath me! Emperor thought. It began pushing back Rampardos' attack. I can't afford to lose! What would Soul say!? How could I face him? NO! I refuse to accept failure!

The crowd grew quite, as emperor began to glow. "What! Not again!" cried Roark. I couldn't believe my eyes! Emperor evolved into an Empoleon! Still weak, Emperor barely managed to throw Rampardos off, "I WON'T LOSE! NOT HERE, NOT NOW!" exclaimed Emperor, as it blasted Rampardos with a blast of hot water! Rampardos flew into the wall, and fell unconscious, burned by the heated water. "That move! it was a rare Unova Attack! it uses the fiery spirit of a water pokemon's heart, and blasts the foe with extreme hot water! It's name is Scald!" cried the announcer.

"Victory! Goes to Soul!" the crowd roared with excitement, and Emperor fell to a knee, wheezing and coughing. I ran to his side and put a wing over my head to help him up. "Up and at em, big fellah," I whispered to Emperor. Emperor grinned, "Did I do good?" he asked. "NO! You were stupid and careless! And you also took unnecessary damage!" I scolded. Emperor laughed, "I expected you to say that!" he said, as we both walked out of the gymnasium and headed to the Pokemon Center.


	6. PokemonAdventures:Soul 6 Grand Chase!

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I carried Emperor on my shoulder all the way back to the Poke Center. On my way groups of people swarmed me, clapping and cheering. They acted as if I won the world cup at a champion's banquet. All they did was get me irritated, I simply wanted them to leave. "Great battle, Soul! You'll definitely make it to the top" people said, patting me on the back. When we finally reached the Poke Center, I requested immediate medical attention for Emperor.

"You worked hard out there…" I said to him. He grabbed my hand. "I owe it to you, for not giving up and respecting me as a te-"...he finally passed out. Nurse Joy, and her chansey, rolled over a stretcher and carted him away. People were still approaching me for autographs and such, but I broke off and quietly disappeared. I went back outside, behind the Pokemon Center, and sat against the wall.

"What's wrong Soul?" asked Huntress, as she broke out of her pokeball. I was about to respond, until I heard someone clapping. I quickly stood up, ready for a fight, but I saw it was Psyche approaching me, still clapping. "Very nice…you won that one pretty smoothly" he said in a mocking tone with a grin on his face. My face darkened as I stared him down, "What do you want?" I growled. His grin disappeared, and his tone became serious. "I wanted to say your skills as a trainer are good, but could use some work." he said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. He handed me the envelope. I glared at him as I took it. I opened it up, and read the context:

Dear Soul,  
Complete your badge collection, and come in first place at the Pokemon League Cup, only then will we accept your challenge. Before you continue, there is a special microchip I left in this envelope. Bring it with you to Floaroma Town, I will wait for you there to train you, and help hone your skills. Keep the microchip safe at all costs.  
-Cynthia, of the Elite 4

I looked back at Psyche. "That Lawna Baker woman gave that to me to bring to you, but that isn't why I really came here," he began. "I know it was you who stopped syndacite a few of days ago…" he said. "Yea what about it? You want to give me a medal…" I responded sarcastically. Psyche began to get frustrated. "NO! You idiot!" he yelled, "You're a target now! Syndicate will hunt you down, and kill you! You interfered with them not only once, but two times now! They won't let that pass!" he said.

Psyche grew silent. I closed my eyes and chuckled, "You really think I am scared of some Syndicate thugs." Psyche didn't answer right away, but he bowed his head, "Yes…I do" he said calmly. My eyes widened with rage, and I ran up to him, grabbing him by the collar and lifting him up off his feet. I then pushed him against the wall, "What did you say! I'M NO COWARD! I won't die as easily…as easily as…" I let him go, and backed off.

I thought of my parents. How my mom was too weak to stay alive after giving birth to me…how my father tried to save those people, and himself, from that burning building. And how i was unable to do anything about it, i couldn't save them, because i was young and weak. I clenched my hand into a fist, "My parents…" I said. "They were too weak to survive! That's what life is! Only the strong have the right to live! Without power, you can accomplish nothing! This is why I," I turned to Huntrress, "No, WE will be strong! My team and I will become strong so we can protect those that we love!"

I faced Psyche again, staring him in the eye, "Am I scared? Yes! But with fear there is strength! That very thing I am scared of, death…and failure…That's what makes me strong!" Things grew quiet again. Psyche just stared at me, and at Huntress. "You are absolutely right, and you are strong Soul, that's why I want to recruit you to the Pokemon Elite Action Center Enforcement, or PEACE for short." He said. I looked at him carefully, "No. I don't want to join your fan club...We had this discussion before...My team is all i need," I pointed at Huntress.

Psyche clenched his fist. "Yea! What about your little heroics when Roark and I were attacked!" he responded. "Greiger was there, I wanted to show him that I wasn't scared to oppose him. I wanted to show him I was ready for him, any time anywhere!" Psyche growled angrily, and then grabbed me, punching me in the face. He held me up by my collar, "YOU THINK THIS IS A GAME?!" he bellowed. Huntress was about to attack Psyche, when his Gengar popped out of Psyche's shadow ready to oppose her. I held my hand out to stop her.

"DO YOU know what Syndicate is!? They are a group of terrorists who use stolen pokemon to smuggle weapons into sinnoh, and sell them off to different regions! THEY HURT people Soul! I was like you, alone and cocky, and what happened to me! They stole my Sceptile, and left me in a ditch to die! If my boss didn't come when he did…" he let go of me. "Your decision is yours "hero", when you're done joking around and actually want to do something worthwhile with your life-" he began, but suddenly there was a flash of bright white light.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!" I exclaimed shielding my eyes. Psyche put on his goggles. The flash started to wear off but my eyes were still seeing doubles. "Soul! Are you ok!" asked Psyche, as he surveyed the area. "Yea..was that a flash attack?" I asked him, "It sure was! During the attack, you dropped your letter with that stupid chip!" he said, as he quickly surveyed the area. Psyche spotted someone fleeing in the distance, and pointed at the back of the fleeing culprit "that guy is in an awful hurry, huh Soul?" He said, . "Yea, well let's go introduce ourselves!" I said remembering that the letter said keep the chip safe, and I began to run after him. Psyche followed me, "I can handle this myself!" I said to him looking back as I ran. Psyche grinned, "Sorry, but there is no way i'm leaving now! That guy was wearing a gray mask!" he responded. I shook my head "Syndicate!" I said in an angry tone.

The culprit took many sharp turns trying to lose us, but we were too quick to be shaken so easily. He made a left turn up a dead end alley way. "We got him now!" yelled Psyche, but as he said that the criminal ran straight up the wall, and flipped backwards grabbing a nearby fire escape of a 3 story building. "Psyche! Shut the hell up before you jinx it any further!" I yelled. I stopped before I got to the wall, "Great!" I said angrily. Psyche ran straight, and up the wall, emulating what the culprit did, "Look live!" He yelled, as he held out his hand. I grabbed it hold, and he threw me up to the roof. I just barely grabbed a ledge and pulled myself up and secured my foot on a nearby window. I held out my hand for psyche, and he launched himself upward, grabbing my hand. "RAWR!" I grunted, as I threw him over my head on top of the roof.

He helped me up quickly, and we resumed the chase. We were hoping roof top to roof top now, trying to catch up, when we jumped onto the last building. "END OF THE LINE! Just hand over the letter!" I called out to the suspect. He wore a gray mask just like Psyche said, similar to Greiger's, but it looked dull. I guess the grunts wear these grey masks I told myself. "You don't know what this is, do you kid? Wait till the boss finds out i nabbed it off of you! im do for a raise haha!" the suspect said. Psyche and I kept taking small steps forward. "No," said Psyche "but I'm sure you're gonna tell us!" the suspect laughed, "You want me to tell you what this is? Ha! Figure it out yourselves!" the Syndicate grunt laughed, as he reached into his back pocket and threw 3 shuriken at us.

I jumped in front of Psyche, and grabbed 3 empty pokeballs off my waist, and threw them at the incoming shuriken, deflecting them. The culprit that pulled out a black ball, and with a puff of smoke, a gliscor appeared. He was about to use gliscor to kite his way off of the roof, headed toward the other buildings. I ran off of the roof behind him, and grabbed hold of his leg. My wait caused him to slip, and he accidentally grabbed one of gliscor's wings. It lost balance, and we began to fall toward the ground. Crap! I thought. "Not on my watch!" Psyche said to himself, as he ran at full speed grabbing the black ball the Syndicate Grunt dropped, and then he jumped off the roof. He threw the black ball at the gliscor, catching it in midair, and caught me. We both landed on another roof nearby, hitting the roof hard with a loud THUD, rolling to a stop. Psyche dropped the black ball on the same roof, close to where we lay.

"ugh…you alright…"I asked him. Psyche, almost immediately got up, shrugging off the pain as if he did that on the daily. "Yea man I'm good" he said stretching out his arm. The black ball that Psyche threw to catch the gliscor burst open, and it appeared to still be injured from our fall. We both jumped backward, "It's a wild pokemon! Huntress, come out of your hiding spot and use Will-o-Wisp" I shouted. Huntress materialized herself and shot out wisps of fire, burning the gliscor. I threw a newer pokeball at it, and it disappeared inside with a puff of smoke. The ball wiggled three times, and a dong confirmed it's lock. I walked over and picked up the pokeball, "How was it wild?" I asked Psyche.

Psyche walked over and picked up the black ball the culprit used. "It appears to be a pokeball. Hey, here check it out" he said tossing me the ball. I examined it. It's made from the same materials as an apricot made pokeball…I chewed a piece of it to get a taste. Psyche gagged, "Ew bro you don't even know where that's been!" he said disgusted. "Shut up, "I grunted as I spit out the pieces. "It's made from a black apricot; the technology in it is far superior than that of a regular pokeball. Based on the nature of it…it seems to be able to override a trainer's signature to caught pokemon, basically making them wild again…"

"That explains a lot…So that would me that microchip you got…is a form of a new energy source, so Syndicate somehow found out about it's existence, and attempted to steal it!" said Psyche, analyzing the details. We ran down the fire escape on the side of the building to find the villain lying on the floor unconscious. Psyche called in some reinforcements on his radio. I took the microchip back, and took another one of those black pokeballs off of the culprit's waist. The other one was empty, which meant he planned on snagging another pokemon on the way back to his HQ. "I'm taking one of these with me…" I said to Psyche. He grabbed my shoulder, "You're not an agent of PEACE or a police officer, and I'm not supposed to allow you to take that…" he said sternly. I turned to face him with a serious look. "I won't join your group directly…but you may consider me an ally, for as long as our goals are the same…" I said to him. He grinned, "What goals might that be?" he asked.

I looked at the black ball in my hand. "I think it's cowardice to steal pokemon from people…I also believe that these Syndicate thugs are tough to fight against…They will keep me and my team on our toes and teach us how to get stronger, and as i oppose them i can possibly halt their small scale operations." I looked at gliscor's black pokeball. "I don't know who the former trainer for this gliscor was, but I'll take care of it, and keep it with me as a part of my team." I said. Psyche nodded, and walked over to the villain, sitting him up and putting him in cuffs. "Get to Floaroma Town, I think Cynthia owes you a few explanations. I'll meet up with you there later. And Soul" he turned to face me "Don't forget you and I have unfinished business" he said with a scowl. "Yea, don't worry, I'll buss your ass in a battle any time," I said with a smirk. "Let's go huntress," I waved her over, and we both left Psyche behind.

We returned to the pokemon center later that evening. It got real dark out now, and the winds was cold. Emperor was waiting for me by the door. "I see you guys had some fun without me" he protested. Huntress giggled, "You shoulda seen it all! We had a fight, someone stole some stuff! Then a chase! And oh! We had another fight!" she said excitedly. "Huntress, we are about to move out," I said pulling out her pokeball, "Take a rest for now." Huntress nodded and retreated back to her ball. "Where to?" Emperor asked. I checked my watch for the time, "6:30, it's not too late. We're gonna head over to the nursery, I just want to pay the kids a quick visit, after we get this crobat treated. Then we head out to floaroma town afterward" I said coldly. Emperor nodded, and I walked back into the pokemon center.

Jubalife City, Half Hour later

I knocked on the door to the Little Rock orphanage. The woman from earlier answered the door. "Oh! hello there, Soul" she said with a warm welcome. She opened the door, "Please, come in!" she said. I nodded to Emperor, and we both walked in. It was a pretty spacious first floor. There was a wooden floor with antique furniture everywhere. It looked like a top dollar place to live, as if it were the inside of a mansion. "Nice place you got here…" I said to her. "Thank you! The kids all went to sleep, so sorry if you came to see them!" she said. She left the room into the kitchen. I could hear metal clanking and pots moving around in the kitchen, then she finally walked out with a tray of food.

You both looked hungry, so I got some of the leftover dinner for you, and some pokemon food for your pokemon. I let Huntress and gliscor out of their respective pokeballs, and we all sat down in the living room. As I started eating, I really took a good look at the woman. She was wearing a see through white gown, and a pink robe. I swallowed some of the food, almost choking because I didn't think she realized she wasn't wearing a bra. "Oh? Something bothering you, Soul :o ?" she said completely clueless. I shook my head no, "Thank you for the food…" I said politely.

"Not to be rude, but I never did get your name…" I said to her. She appeared to have dosed off, and just woke up as I said something. "Oh my! Where are my manners! My name is Hope, and I'm sure you remember the kids!" she said with a sweet voice. I nodded, and looked at my pokemon. They were all staring at me with these conceded looks and huge smiles. "Keep eating!" I barked at them angrily, and they turned away. Hope yawned and stretched her arms up, completely exposing her chest. I looked away, "Well ma'am! I thank you for the food, please tell the kids that I stopped by!" I said, as I got up to leave, with my pokemon following me.

"Soul wait!," she said, "I wanted to ask you for a favor. I turned around to face her. "My daughter, her name is Spirit, she left for Floaroma town a couple of days ago. She's been doing some training with her Budew over there, would you be a doll and go see her, she's been there for quite some time! See if you can get her to come home, and tell her I'm worried ok?" she asked with a smile. I was a bit confused. "How can you trust me so easily?" I asked. She let out a soft laugh, "Well for starters, you didn't try to come onto me at this time of night, even though I look pretty ecchi right now," she began, "And your pokemon, they looked so happy, and I could tell they trust you, even that gliscor is starting to trust you, and it appears you both just met!"

I was startled to hear that second part, "Can you tell what a pokemon feels or something"i asked, but she shook her head "No! not at all! hehe!" she stammered a sweet voice. It seemed like she was hiding something..."Yea…I promise…whatever" I grunted. The mom laughed softly, "Good night soul!" she said waving. I waved back, and my pokemon and I left for Floaroma Town.

-From Hope's perspective-

Soul walked out of the front door, nd took his pokemon with him. I let out a sigh, and looked over at a picture of myself and my children. "I almost got caught haha-" i laughed to myself, shaking my head. I can't tell Soul how i can read the thoughts of his pokemon just yet...but one day there will come a time that he will need to learn everything about my, and my daughters, "abilities"...till then, take care of him, Spirit.


	7. PokemonAdventures:Soul 7 Real Soul!

It was completely dark out now, only the street lights were on, and the stars and moon lit up the sky like fire flies. Emperor and I took our first steps into Floaroma town. "The center is probably still open, We should stop by there for now," Emperor said. I nodded in agreement, and we headed to the pokemon center.

When we got inside, we could see Nurse Joy laying her head on the desk, passed out. We walked up to her. "Umm…should we let her sleep?" whispered Emperor. Nurse Joy snorted, and looked up at me and Emperor, as she reached for her round glasses. We just stared at each other for a solid minute. Nurse Joy hiccuped, "Oh are you both in need for a room tonight?" she asked, still half asleep. "Yes, do you still have some rooms available?" I asked her in a calm voice. She nodded, "Your name sir?" she asked. Told her my name, and she looked up at me again. "Soul? Well there was a special request for you..." she said, as she handed me a key. "3rd floor, door on your right, good night" she said as she yawned. Nurse Joy put her head back on her desk, and went back to sleep.

As we made our way to the room, I couldn't help but think who is expecting me? I pulled out the microchip I had in my pocket. Cynthia, so she definitely is waiting to train me i thought to myself…We walked up to the door. I put the key in, and the lock made a buzz confirming the card. I opened the door, and I saw a girl. She was wrapped in a very small towel that barely covered everything, and her hair was wrapped. Steam was still coming out of the bathroom. I stared at the girl as she was bent over a bag, that she was going through.

She stopped and turned her head to look at me. Her eyes began to glow a light blue, "Hi there, Soul!" she said in an angelic voice. She turned back around, and pulled a pair underwear out of her bag, and put it on in front of me. She began to blush, "I know you're enjoying the show but can you please close the door?" said in her innocent voice. I snapped out of my daze, and walked inside with Emperor, closing the door behind me. Emperor shook his head, "Boy you betta smash," he said in a conceded voice. "Shut up and get in your pokeball," I grunted, retreating Emperor into his ball.

"Who are you?" I asked sternly. The girl turned around and took the towel off, and she put on a bra. "The name's Spirit!" she said in an energetic voice. "My mom told me about you! I had an argument with her again today, She wanted me to come home, to which I said no. So she told me she would send me my "body guard" and I can go anywhere I wanted as long as it was with you." She said as she put a giant t-shirt on. "Then, I figured I'd see you in the morning, so I told nurse joy to give you a key, and let you in, so I could meet you back here later on in the day but alas, too my surprise," she lifted her hand and pointed at me, "The "body guard" decided to come in unannounced and get a free peep show! How bold~" she laughed.

I shook my head, "Look, I'm not here because I wanted to be. I did not sign up for being a fuckin body guard. I was told to bring you home, but it seems you spoke to your mother already." I said in a cold voice. "So if I'm not needed here, I have someone I'm supposed to be meet-" but before I finished, there was a loud banging on the door. I jumped quickly over to the door, "PREPARE YOURSELF!" I yelled to Spirit, clutching Emperor's poke ball expecting an attack from some Syndicate thugs. I opened the Door, and Heart busted in. "I heard talking! Are you okay beautiful!" he said. Before I could get up, another person came in knocking me back down. "Yeah! Me and Heart heard you being attacked!" said the voice of a younger boy. I looked up at both of them.

"You idiots! Watch where you're going!" I growled at them as I stood up dusting myself off. Heart and the kid turned to look at me. Heart gasped, "HOW DID HE GET IN HERE!" he bellowed. Spirit was starting to get irritated, as she placed her hands on her hips. "I invited him in, he's my guest," she said. Heart was outraged, "A man and a woman in the same room at this time of night! Alone and unchaperoned! While you are looking so ecchi!? I WONT STAND FOR IT!" he said, tears rolling down his eyes uncontrollably. "You better talk chump! Who are you!" demanded the kid. I glared at them.

I turned around, "I'm leaving…" I said. I began to walk out the door, but something pulled my arm. I turned around to see Spirit had grabbed my arm. "How'd you get to me so fast?" I said to her. Her face was serious, "I can't allow you to leave, i'm supposed to meet Cynthia tomorrow! along with these two idiots!" She said to me. I glared at her, "So your taking me to Cynthia? why, are you going meeting with her also?" I questioned. She started getting irritated again. "I already told you, you are my body guard! My mom told me you were coming, and she insisted that I got to know you…you see when my mom says something; it is always because it is important! I don't know why, nor does she, but her advice and how she reads people has never been wrong!" I pulled my arm away from her.

"I already told you I am not your body guard…" I began. Heart stepped up to me. "So you would ignore a woman's request? What kind of man are you!" he growled. I squared up with him, and looked him dead in the eye. "The kind who doesn't care about what people do or say, and isn't afraid to smash somebody who steps up to him." I said coolly. Spirit stepped between us. "Heart, I need you and Core to leave!" she said. "But he-," began Heart in protest. "I said, Good Night, Heart" Spirit said sternly. Heart gritted his teeth, and looked at me with a face of disgust. "Let's go Core" he said, as he bumped my shoulder on the way out.

Core glared at me for a while, and then followed Heart out. I attempted to walk out right behind them, but Spirit stopped me "Get back in here Soul," she said sternly. I looked at her. "Now hold on who made you a boss?" I growled at her. Spirit stared at me in the eye. "Don't do this with me Soul, I can see into you!" She said walking up to me. "So please drop the tough guy bullshit around me, and get inside!" she said, as she walked back into the room and sat on her bed. I sighed and followed her in and closed the door again.

I sat on the floor in front of her. "Ok, you have my attention." I said. Her eyes began to glow blue again, I'm not sure what that meant. "She was right after all," Spirit responded. I looked at her, "Right about?" I asked. She shook her head, "Nothing I can't talk about that just yet, but I know you're here to meet Cynthia too, right?" she said with a smile. I nodded, "Yea I have to deliver something to her," I said clutching the microchip in my pocket. Spirit looked puzzled, "Bring what to her?" she asked. I looked at her sternly, "Sorry, need to know basis only…You got your secrets, i have mine" I said to her coolly.

Spirit puffed up her cheeks, "That's mean Soul! You're mean!" she said whimpering. She turned herself away, crossing her arms and legs. I shook my head, "You act like a spoiled brat" I said to her. Spirit turned her head to me, putting her hand over her mouth getting teary eyed. "How could…how could you say that to me!" she said pretending to cry. I smirked, "Your acting is good kid, but stuff like that doesn't work on me…" I retorted. She smiled and laughed. "I guess not! I'd have Heart eating out my hands by now!" she laughed. Heart must really like her, I thought, flashing back at how he stepped up to me to defend her. "Yea we go way back, he always insisted that he was my boyfriend…even though he will never be" she sighed; "He's just not my type, a bit of a show boat if you ask me" she shrugged. I smiled lightly, "Seems he hasn't changed since I beat him in that battle" i said. "Actually, no he really has! His bond with his pokemon and the way he acts has improved significantly!" she responded.

"I'm glad…the way he acted before was unfit for a trainer." I said. I looked at Spirit, who was smiling at me. I began to blush, "What?" I growled at her. "YOU SEE! I knew there was a nice guy under that front of a bad ass!" she said pointing at me, "you are a very caring person deep down! You're a good guy soul, so why do you act like such a prick?" I stopped blushing and my face returned to a scowl. "I'm not a nice guy; I just don't like what I don't like. If something bothers me I fix it. Other people's problems are their problems, I could care less!" I said.

Spirit sighed. "Well, let's go to bed, we have a tough morning ahead of us i bet. I'm gonna be bringing you to Cynthia, she's waiting for us in Eterna forest." She turned the light off and crawled under her sheets. I kicked off my shoes, and went to lie down on the floor, with my hands under my head. "Oh and soul~" Spirit said in her innocent voice, "If you get lonely feel free to come cuddle next to me!" she giggled. I began to blush, "You know, you are just as ecchi as your mom is!" I said out loud. She laughed, "I know you won't do anything ;3" she said, and quickly fell asleep.

The next morning, We woke up early. We took turns taking showers to give each other some privacy, and we suited up together. She put on her pink hoodie, and pulled up the hood to cover the back part of her head. We walked out together, and went to the lobby to find Heart and Core waiting for us. "Morning Spirit~!" they said to her with hearts in their eyes. "Morning boys!" she said with a smile. Emperor and I trailed slowly behind her, not saying a word. "Oi soul, don't know how to say what's up?" Heart said with a scowl.

I turned to him and Core, "Listen, you've been itchin' for a fight all night, you want to step outside or something?" I growled at him. He was about to respond, but Spirit shook her head gently. He growled and turned around, "You got some nerve! After my training with Cynthia, I'd probably kick your ass anyway!" he said as we walked out of the Poke Center.

They lead me to a forest on the opposite side of town. They were laughing together having fun making jokes, as I followed them about 3 feet away. Emperor tapped me on the shoulder. "Yo, did you smash?" he said. I shook my head, "Bro I barely know her, and that's not what I'm about." Emperor stopped, and grabbed my shoulder. HE knelt over to get at eye level with me. "Ok man, look. You are my leader, and I will follow you to the ends of the earth as your captain, your partner in crime. And listen I'm down with you on anything, but bro, let me know at least so I can adjust how I act with you." He paused and looked me in the eye with a serious face. "Are you gay?" he asked.  
I kicked him in the chest, and he fell over laughing. "You're a piece of shit you know that…" I said coolly. He got up and continued to follow me laughing calmly.

The others turned to look at me, as it appeared I was having a full conversation with a giant squawking bird. "Yeah, he has no friends, and he's crazy…" said Heart. Core laughed. Spirit punched him in the arm, "That's mean!" she said puffing out her cheeks. Core and Heart were laughing, "How do you you explain that!" he said pointing back at me, while I was still talking to Emperor. Spirit turned to look at me, "He has the ability to communicate with pokemon through forming a bond. It's a very rare technique, that hasn't been seen since the great pokemon trainer, Yellow." She said with a smile.

Heart and Core looked surprised. "So he can actually TALK to pokemon?" Core said. Spirit nodded with a smile, "Mhmm!" Heart's face changed. "No wonder why he got upset…when I was talking so high and mighty back when I got the gym badge from Roark…" he said. He clenched his fist. "This Soul…He teaches me something every time we meet, I've got to admit I'm kind jealous now!" he laughed, "But wait...how did you know that?" Heart questioned. Spirit began to blush, clearly becoming flustered, "Oh! er- He told me about it last night!? haha..." she said waving her arms. Heart nodded, "Wow, he told you that? didn't seem like the type to open up. Heh, who knew?" Heart said with a shrug and a smile. Spirit let out a sigh of relief.

We finally made it to this small cabin in the middle of a meadow somewhere in Eterna Forest, and Spirit knocked on the door. A Tall woman with Blonde hair answered the door. "Hello! Nice of you guys to come back!" she said with a graceful smile. They all entered saying their hellos, and I stepped up to the door last. Cynthia looked at me, "Oh! Might you be Soul?" she asked. I nodded sternly. Cynthia held out her hand, "Cynthia, Champion of Sinnoh, nice to meet you Soul." She said with a smile. Out of respect for her status, I softly shook her hand. "My, my! So gentle! What a gentleman!" she said beaming at me.

I blushed, "Yeah whatever, I have some questions for you…" I said in a rushed tone. "Sure! Please step inside!" she said. I Shook my head, "I'd prefer it if you stepped Outside" I signaled her to walk out to the field. Her face grew serious. "Business before pleasure and niceties…Fine Soul, we'll do it your way," she turned to look at the others, "Please make yourselves at home, there is breakfast on the table, I made it myself! It is quite exquisite, so do enjoy!" She closed the door. "Follow me," she said in a serious tone as she led me deeper into the forest.

We walked for a few minutes into the forest until we were completely surrounded by huge trees. Cynthia stopped and turned to me. "This is good enough. please I'd like to see all your pokemon" She said. I released all my pokemon out of their pokeballs, and I had them line up. She examined them and nodded. "They have been through a lot with you, except this gliscor here," she pointed at gliscor. "Is he new?" she asked. I nodded, "I honestly don't know too much about him aside from what the pokedex told me about his moves and type. We recovered him during a confrontation with Syndicate" I said.

"Oh, I see. Do You know about the dark balls yet?" she asked, placing a hand on her hip. I grunted in response and walked over to my gliscor. "Yea, i seen a couple of them, i still have one in fact. It seems to be able to overwrite the signatures made from regular pokemon caught with default pokeballs. They are made from a rare black apricot, only found in the Unova Region. This type of tech isnt cheap at all..." i said, making an observation from the dark ball i took.

Cynthia nodded, "And the microchip?" she asked. I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to her, "A Syndicate thug attempted to steal it. But me and a…friend…of mine were able to get it back" I thought about how psyche saved my life, and I said a silent thank you in my head. Cynthia sighed, "I'm glad it's safe…" she said. I stared at her sternly. "If you knew people were after it, why the hell did you give it to me?!" I said coldly. Cynthia looked at me, "After your little spat on TV, declaring that you would conquer everyone in a battle, two things happened," she walked over to gliscor, and began rubbing it's head.

"I took it upon myself to test you and your ability to protect this microchip," she began, "Secondly, I figured it'd be safer with you, since no one would expect me to collaborate with someone who wants to take me down so bad" she said with a smile. "Hmph, you're lucky, if that person hadn't come after me for it, I honestly woulda thrown it away" I said with a evil grin. Cynthia laughed softly, "No you wouldn't have soul, that's not who you are" she responded. I clenched my fist in anger. "SINCE WHEN do people know me!? we've never even met before! you, AND spirit! I DON'T know you and you DON'T know me!? SO HOW CAN YOU DECIDE WHO I AM-" Emperor walked up behind me, and grabbed my shoulder. "That's enough!" he barked at me in anger. I gritted my teeth in anger, and turned the other way. "Soul…" began Huntress, "Please, don't get so angry! You're…scaring me" it whispered as it retreated behind Emperor.

I took in a deep breath and exhaled. "You…You are right, it was wrong for me to involve you," said Cynthia. "However, after hearing about what you did against Syndicate in the cave by Jubalife, I thought we'd be on the same page…" She walked over to me. "After what Team Galactic did to your father-" I flipped out. My fist acted on its own. I swung at full force ready to hit Cynthia in the face, but something inside of me stopped me. I began to cry, uncontrollably. But not tears of sadness, but of anger. I was so mad at everyone. Mad at everything around me. That I couldn't do anything to save either of them. She wrapped her hands around me. I shoved her off, and quickly whipped off my tears.

"I get it, I get it…" I said. "You figured that I wanted to beat down guys like Team Galactic, because of what happened to my father…" I said angrily. Cynthia shook her head. "Then tell me, why you stopped them that night" She asked.  
I held out my hand and signaled to Huntress to come. She hesitated at first, but I motioned to her that it was okay. She sped over to me, giving me a hug. "My sableye, Huntress, was attacked by those goons. They hurt her badly and left her to die. If I hadn't went to save her that night, She could have been taken or worse, dead..." I stroked her head to help calm her down Cynthia walked over to me again, "Exactly my point. That was a noble cause. You confuse it with the thought of protecting your own. But either way, you selflessly went out of your way to help this pokemon in need, and punished those men for harming her." Cynthia handed me the microchip. I looked at her.

"Take the microchip and guard it. Syndicate will find out that you met with me, and may think you handed it off to me or stashed it somewhere. Soul, in the wrong hands this can be a great weapon, so i am trusting you to take care of this. Prove to me and my Elite 4 that you are a challenger worthy of respect." She said sternly. I took the microchip from her, "where do you want me to do with it…" I asked. "Snowpoint City. Bring that with you, and when you arrive there, meet with the Gym Leader Candice, and Prof. Oak. They will be waiting for you, ok?" I nodded in agreement.

"Now then, Your pokemon need to study these moves…" Cynthia pulled out a few disks from her pocket. "They are tms, use the pokedex to cipher the information, and use the guide to teach them to your pokemon. they are tm87 swagger, 05 Roar, 06 toxic, and 51 Roost. Follow the training exercises carefully, and use them wisely. And Soul," she said as she started walking back to the cabin, "Ever attempt to punch me in the face again and I will make your life a living Hell…" she said coldly. I grinned, and looked at the disks, "Hmph, I'll keep that in mind…" I said, as I pocketed them, and followed her back to the cabin.


	8. PokemonAdventures:Soul 8 The Next Level!

It's been hours since Cynthia and I got back to the cabin. The second we returned, she called everyone out of the cabin, and we started training like dogs. We trained separately at first, so each individual trainer can hone their respective pokemon's moves. I trained with Emperor, Huntress and Gliscor. I taught Emperor both Roar and Toxic, i taught Gliscor roost and taunt, and i taught Huntress Swagger. It took us a while to get those moves down pat, but we eventually learned how to use them effectively. We worked hard on our minds, bodies and souls so we could fight in sync. Gliscor and I practiced especially hard in that field.

As the days drew on and a month quickly flew by, every trainer had finished with the individual workouts. To further our strengths, we started team battles and team orientated drills. These exercises were meant to establish friendships among each other, and to learn the value of working together. I didn't care so much about the friendship with those losers Heart and Core, but learning how to cooperate in teams with other people was a very important lesson to learn.

One day, Core and I partnered up to battle against Spirit and Heart and this battle was just getting heated as we dashed through the forest surrounded by trees. The objective? capture the flag.

"Emperor! Use Ice beam on the ground!" I called, as we ran forward at full speed. Heart quickly responded to my command, "Oh no you don't! Infernape, Mach speed Thunder Punch!" he called, and immediately, Infernape stepped forward with a burst of speed locking onto Emperor like a target, making sure there was no time to layer the ground with ice! Core dashed in with Floatzel by his side, "Floatzel! Aqua Jet to catch up Infernape and parry the thunder punch with mudslap!" he demanded. Floatzel burst forward in a ball of water, effortlessly catching up to infernape in moments. The combined force between aqua jet's speed impact and mudslap's ground typing fizzled out the Infernape's attack.

Spirit rushed in quickly catching up to Heart, Core and myself. "YAHOOO! Heh heh! they fell for the feint! Budew! Jump off Infernape's and use leech seed on Floatzel!" she called out. Budew then popped out of nowhere, jumping off of infernape's back. It shot a seed at Floatzel, tying it up and effectively dropping it out of the race. "Infernape, Grab budew and launch it at emperor! GO!" exclaimed Heart. Infernape grabbed Budew, and with all his might, threw him at Emperor. Budew soared threw the air like a bullet. "It won't be that easy! Emperor! Roar NOW!" I demanded. "I'm on it!" Emperor responded, and a blue aura surrounded emperor, as he let out a giant ROAR! The soundwaves of Emperor's roar halted it's progress, and sent it flying back to Spirit.

Just a little further! I thought, as Infernape and Heart quickly caught up to me. "Infernape! Close Combat!" he called. As Infernape swung his first punch, I grinned, "Get too close, and you drop you're guard!" I said. Emperor swung around, facing Infernape right before he got hit, "Scald Him!" I called. Too slow to respond to the sudden attack, Emperor shot Infernape and Heart down into the ground digging them into the earth with a full powered Scald. Emperor and I continued to dash forward.

"Crap! infernape! cmon" Heart yelled trying to stand up in the slippery mud created by Emperor's Scald. I faced forward and smirked at how easily i took heart down, but somehow, Spirit found her way in front of us! "What! When?" I said angrily. Spirit was swinging threw the trees, with the help of Budew and its vine whip! She winked and blew me a kiss, as Budew accelerated in speed, swinging from tree to tree. "Emperor! It's up to us! Shoot it down with you're ice beam!" I said as Emperor and I continued to sprint forward. "We can still make it!" Emperor growled, firing blasts of ice at budew.

Spirit and I were neck and neck as we both fired off beams of ice and solar energy, stretching out our hands to grab the approaching flag at the finish line. "Budew get in front of Emperor and use Leech Seed!" Spirit commanded. Budew and Spirit swooped in from above us and was about to tie us up! "Hell NO! Emperor use a full powered Scald!" I said quickly. Emperor shot out huge volumes of water with great velocity, but Spirit winked at us! "Later boys ;3, budew Protect!" she said. Budew made a short energy shield that blocked the attack! And what's more, it propelled them forward even more! Budew and Spirit soared threw the air, and grabbed the flag.

Emperor and I came to a running stop. "Damn it…" I said, as Emperor sat down in exhaustion. Heart and core finally caught up to us. "So?! Who won!" said Core. I shook my head, and Spirit jumped up and down laughing holding Budew in the air. "That's my little seedling! You're beautiful and strong! Aren't you dearest!" she said in a praising voice. Budew smiled and made little cute squealing noises as it was being weaved around in the air.

"OH YEAH! Mission accomplished! Suck it soul!" Heart said putting his arm around my shoulders laughing and skipping. I glared at him, "I think you are getting too familiar with me. Don't think you're better than what you are just cuz she got the flag for you…" I said coldly. He ignored me and went to give Core a noogie. "Heh heh! Next time choose the winning team!" he said putting Core in a full nelson. Core began crying, "STOP IT HEART! OWW! Ok! ok! next time I'll make sure I put Spirit on my team!" he exclaimed. Heart let him go, "Exactly!...hey wait a second!" Heart realized he just got played. Heart began chasing Core around in circles, and everyone was laughing, heck, even i cracked a smile.

I watched as they played around, and had fun. "Hmph, Emperor let's go…" I said quietly, and we both started walking back to camp. "Hey! Soul wait :I" said spirit, as she ran to catch up with me, followed by Heart and Core.

We finally made it back to camp. Cynthia was outside waiting. She waved at us, "Welcome back! You guys have any fun? Did you push each other to work hard!?" she called out to us. Core, Spirit and Heart ran out to greet Cynthia with smiles of joy. They started gibbering away about the whole race and all the fun they had. I walked by the small group and waited in front of the cabin door with Emperor by my side. Cynthia turned away from the group to face me. "Soul, how about you? Anything you want to elaborate about the race?" she asked with a smile.

I stood up straight, and looked at Core, and then I faced Cynthia. "My team believed in me, and I let them down. He sacrificed himself in an effort to give me the lead we needed to win. If this were a real battle, I could have cost us our lives…This mission was a failure, and I failed my team" Heart, Spirit and Core looked at me with serious faces.

"Soul, this exercise wasn't meant to directly teach a lesson, it was to learn how to communicate with each other better! And to have fun!" Cynthia said, she walked over to me and grabbed my shoulder, "Listen you guys worked hard out there, come into the cabin and relax for a little while" she said. Spirit and Core rushed inside without hesitation, giggling uncontrollable as they raced to eat the food set on the table. "Soul, I want to work out with you a while longer…" Emperor said to me. I nodded, "Emperor and I are gonna work out a little longer." I said to Cynthia. She smiled, "Okay, but don't overdo it…" she said, and she walked inside. Heart walked up to me, "You know…Soul, you are a great leader, and you worked hard…Let me train with you as well, so we both cab get stronger as a team." He extended his fist out to me.

I placed my hand on his fist, "No…Emperor, Huntress and Nightwing have to work out together as a team, besides you and the others were able to train with Cynthia for an entire day longer than I did. We need this extra training, So don't mind me…Go eat." I said giving him a fist bump. He gave me a nod, and walked inside.

3 hours later…

Emperor Huntress and Nightwing were breathing pretty heavily. I was pretty banged up myself, from taking too many of their combined attacks. Emporer and I stood up, ready to go another round, but Nightwing and Huntress were at there limits. "Huntress," i called out. "Yes soul!?" she responded happily, "Take Nightwing and both your pokeballs to the cabin, me and Emperor are gonna go at it again." I said coolly. Huntress nodded, and scooped up Nightwwing, and sped off. Emperor was still breathing heavily, I put the training gloves back on again, and charged at Emperor, "ARGH!" I cried, as I swung quick 1,2 combo. He ducked and swayed out of the way of both hits. I threw an uppercut straight through the middle, punching Emperor in the gut.

My punch connected, but Emperor was able to muscle threw it. Emperor then swung around behind me, "GOOD! NOW ATTACK!" I screamed, as I quickly turned and swung a right jab. But just as I wanted, he blasted me with his Scald, before I could get my punch in. I hurtled backward into the ground, and hit my back hard against the cold muddy floor. "Gah!" I coughed, as the air in my chest seemed to escape me. "CMON! GET UP!" Emperor shouted. I staggered to my feet, and grinned at Emperor. I charged forward yet again, "HAAAH!" I bellowed.

Emperor shot another Scald at me, but I ducked under it, and used the mud on the ground to slide in under his Feet. He cut the attack short, but was too late to avoid my assault. I swung my hand threw, pulling his leg as i slid under him, effectively tripping him. He turned as he fell on his back with a loud THUD! I quickly stood up and attempted to charge at him yet again as he laid on the ground. As i jumped at him, he let out a giant ROAR! sending me flying backwards! "Good! GOOD!" I called to him, as I quickly got up again. He was learning to use Roar effectively! And now that I'm tired, he was using my attacks as set up bait, making me think I got him. Then he quickly and effectively musters up an attack from behind to retaliate to my assault! "It's NOT OVER!" I cried, and I dashed forward, using the mud. Emperor's braced himself for another round. As I got in on him, and was about to give a blow of my own, my leg gave out, and I slid into him instead, causing both of us to fall over.

We just sat their huffing and puffing, trying to catch our breath. We started coughing and sputtering in exhaustion, and those coughs slowly turned into laughs. "You've done it! The move Roar gives you time to recover your footing, and toxic allows you to weaken your opponent in that time, giving you a major advantage! also as you tank those hits with your bulk, your ability torrent powers up your Scald as you get weaker! the longer you are in the battle you will only grow stronger!" I said wearily. "Yea! This new move set will make me damn near unbeatable!" Emperor responded.

Suddenly, an Aerodactyl swooped in from overhead, and landed by us. Psyche hopped off its back, and walked over to Emperor and myself. We glared up at him from the ground. "You both look really pathetic right now" Psyche said barely able to hold in his laughter. Emperor and I helped each other stand up. "Oh yea…Tough talk from a chump like yourself…" I said, barley able to stand. My vision began to get blurry. "Heh, you both seem to be working hard…" that was the last thing I heard Psyche say, since Emperor and I both collapsed on the sighed as he took Emperor's pokeball from my waste, and put Emperor back into his ball.

=From Psyche's Perspective=

I picked Soul up, and carried him back to the cabin. I knocked on the cabin door, and Cynthia opened it up. "Hello Psyche!" she said happily. I quickly saluted. and Cynthia shook her head with a smile , "Haha! At easy soldier!" she said waving for me to come in. I lugged soul in over my shoulder and walked in. As i walked into the room, i oould see two boys sitting on a couch in front of the fire place, alongside Spirit. "Who the heck is he?" the eldest boy demanded. "Yeah! How come he's hear? Is he joining our training?" the youngest chipped in.

Spirit smiled and waved, "Hello Psyche! How have you been? And how is Grotle?" she asked. "EEEEEHH?!" the boys said in unison. "SPIRIT! Why do you know all these guys!? WHAT THE HELL!? Are you hiding something? ." the eldest boy asked nudging Spirit's arm. She moved Heart's elbow away, "Well, you see, I met Psyche in the forest one day. he was being attacked by a couple of Ursaring for some odd reason. I Swooped in and fought them off for him with my grotle, and since he didn't have any pokemon with him, I gave him my grotle!" she said with a smile.

I pulled a pokeball off my waist, and tossed it to Spirit, "Yea, at the time My pokemon had been seriously injured in a gym battle, So I went to the pokecenter to heal them up. I got wind that there were some Syndicate activity in the forest. I intended to simply gather intelligence, then come back later with a team, but I somehow got found out and was forced to take them down on the spot. Unfortunately, Greiger got away and he sent the enraged Ursaring after me…" I walked over to an empty couch, and laid soul down on it.

"Psyche, my instincts tell me that you should hold on to grotle for now…" Spirit said, and she tossed the pokeball back to me and I caught it, "You sure? My team is with me now…" I responded. Spirit shook her head, "I have a strange feeling, that you will need him, and he will need you…When the time comes, you will see" Spirit said with a smile. I sighed and shrugged, "You've been right about these things before, so I'll just take your word for it…" I said, as I placed grotle's ball back on my waste.

I turned to Cynthia. "I came here to update you as a PEACE operative, so please listen," I said sternly. "What's PEACE?" asked heart, but Cynthia held her hand out to silence him. "Ok, go on ahead" she responded in a serious tone. I looked over at Spirit and the two boys. "Don't you think it'd be better to not discuss something so serious with civilians present?" i asked Cynthia. Cynthia shook her head, "They are fine. Oh and by the way, The older boy is Heart, and that's his little brother, Core" she said, finally introducing them. I gave them a nod, "Right Then…Syndicate has been lying low as of late, probably still moving weapons under the radar. We interrogated the prisoner i apprehended, but it appeared to be futile. It seems that he some how developed sudden amnesia. He cannot recall any events from where he's been, even up to the events from a month ago." said Psyche. "Any theories?" asked Cynthia. "We believe that these people may be innocent. The same technology found in the Vile Balls, as we call them, is being used to manipulate people and their natures. You see, studies lead us to believe that the power of these Vile balls is to amplify ones anger and heighten the evil in one's heart"

Cynthia walked over to the table where Heart and the others were seated. She pulled out a chair and sat down, crossing her legs. "And about the whereabouts of Syndicate's base of operations?" she asked. "Still unknown, with little to no progress on that topic" I replied shaking. "Very well, then. Thank you for the update Psyche, well done" she said, still deep in thought. Heart stood up out his chair abruptly. "I waited, now answer my question!" he said sternly, "What is PEACE?" I closed his eyes and let out a sigh, "PEACE stands for Pokemon Elite Action Center Enforcement. We are an organization of Agents who are dedicated to stopping criminal empires like Team Rocket, and Team Galactic. We tried to recruit Soul, but he's a bit of a rouge." I said pointing at the fallen trainer on the couch.

Cynthia chuckled, "He's strong and he doesn't give up. He'd be a great leader if he didn't shun people away and try to carry everything on his shoulders alone" she said. It grew silent. Cynthia stood up, and started a fire in fireplace. Warmth quickly filled the air, as she went back to take her seat. "Well then. I'm glad to have been able to update you, , but I have things to take care of." I said, thinking about the other 3 badges i still had to train myself for, and the abundance of PEACE recon operations i have to do. I was about to leave, but Heart called to me, "I want to join PEACE! How do I sign up?" I turned and stared in Hearts eyes.

"I'm strong! And I work hard! It's not fair that Soul gets all the credit! Especially since I'm stronger than he is now!" Heart said angrily. I paused for a second, is this kid serious? i thought. I started to chuckle at first, trying to hold in my laughter, but i eventually gave and busted out laughing at Heart. "HAHAHAHA! YOU? Stronger than Soul!? Heh heh! That's cute, I never thought this kid could be this funny!" I cried, whipping tears from my eyes. Heart growled angrily, "WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO LAUGH! I AM STRONG! AND I CAN BACK THAT UP, TOO! HOW ABOUT WE STEP OUTSIDE!" he bellowed. Spirit moved to grab Heart to sit him back down, but Cynthia moved her hand to stop her.

The laughter disappeared from my face, as i walked up to Heart not breaking eye contact. "You know how I know your full of shit? When I look in your eyes, I see a boy that grew up with both parents at home, whom had plenty of money. A boy that didn't have to struggle on his own, or feed himself on those cold stormy nights. Your eyes don't have that anger, that feeling of regret, that fire to fight on. You are just an average teenager, who grew up with what he had given to him like everything is peachy clean and it's all a game."

Psyche then pointed at soul, "You know what he had? He had two dead parents by the age of three, a step-father who knows nothing about children, that also never had time to take care of a child because of research, and struggledas a misfit in a community of wealthy and spoiled kids. He wants to put his heart and soul into every little thing he can, and he works hard. He grew up virtually alone blaming himself for the death of both his parents, and struggles with the thought he has something to prove! He has the heart and soul of a real warrior, willing to take it to the next level no matter what even if it costs him his life!" I said sharply.

Heart was stricken by My words. Core sunk deeper into his chair, staring at soul while a single tear fell from Spirit's eye. Heart put on his coat, and zipped it up. He picked up his pokeballs that were on the healing-pulse machine, and placed it on his waste. "When you are ready, Psyche step outside and let's handle this like men" He said passing me and walking right out the front door. He stood motionlessly waiting for me to step out with him. Least the kid has style, i thought, as i walked out behind him.

It was late at night, and the moon peeked over the trees, shining a bright light on the meadow. The mud had dried up from Emperor and Soul's training, leaving a battle scared field for us to fight on. Heart and I stood on opposite sides of the field, as Cynthia walked up to the center.

"This battle is a one v. one, Obviously the first pokemon to fall will be the loser, any objections?" She asked. Both trainers shook their heads no. "Good. The challenger will decide who chooses pokemon first, Heart?" Cynthia said turning to Heart. Heart threw his pokeball, and with a puff of smoke, Infernape appeared, recharged and ready for battle. I laughed, "Your infernape looks pretty strong…but not strong enough…" I said as I grabbed a pokeball from my waste and tossed it into the air.

With a puff of smoke, A Kingler appeared. "Oi, Kingler, This isn't a real match, so take it easy" I told my Kingler. "Kokee ke ke!" cried Kingler, snapping its claws. Heart clenched his fists. "BEGIN!" declared Cynthia. Heart made the first move, "Infernape! Mach punch! Get in close!" he cried. Infernape ran toward Kingler in a burst of speed, preparing to attack. "Parry it with Crab hammer…" I said in a relaxed tone. Kingler lifted its giant claw, effortlessly blocking the attack. "Use Close Combat!" Heart said swiftly. "King, protect…" Psyche responded. Kingler brought up a shield, blocking all of Infernape's attempts at an attack.

"Don't let up just yet!" Heart cried. The shield began to crack under the pressure, as Infernape rained flurries of fists on Kingler pushing it back. "NOW! Use thunderpunch!" heart said with a grin. The last punch from the close combat shattered the shield, leaving me no time to make a new one. Infernape gathered electricity and swung forward. "Kingler, use agility to move around him…" I said. With warp speed King moved behind Infernape, causing it to swing at an after image and lose balance. "This bores me…Yoke him up with vice grip…" I yawned. Kingler grabbed Infernape in its giant claw, squeezing him tightly inflicting great pain. "Infernape! Try to shake out of it!" cried Heart, but his cries were futile. "End it, Crab Hammer! Bury him into the ground!" I said Coolly.

Kingler lifted Infernape up into the air, and swung down with tremendous force. Water from the crab hammer splashed everywhere, and kicked up a lot of mud from the impact on the ground. Infernape lay unconscious in its own small crater. "Infernape is down, winner is Psyche!" said Cynthia. I returned Kingler to its pokeball "Hehe, Body Bagged" i said, as Heart ran out to his beaten Infernape. I slowly walked up to Heart, and crouched real low to get right in his face, and smiled. "I told you. You are nothing but a weakling. You lack pain, and you lack that hunger for victory…And you know what's even funnier? I'm not even a full time member of PEACE, I'm just a volunteer. In order to volunteer, you have to pass an exam. A 1v1 battle with a real agent, and you couldn't even beat me…Your pathetic."

I walked over to Cynthia. "You went a little too hard…" she whispered. I looked over my shoulder at Heart, who sat on his knees, Holding Infernape in his arms. "No, he has to learn…He's a guy, not a girl he can handle a little push. If he's too weak minded to get up from this, then it'd be better if he just went back home...Don't give up on him Cynthia, and thanks for being the ref." I summoned out Aerodactyl from his pokeball, and took off into the night sky.

=From Heart's Perspective=

I finally mustered up the strength to get up, placing infernape back into his pokeball. I walked over to the group, with my head down, clenching my fists and gritting my teeth. Damn, that kid was tough as hell! He would go up against my infernape with a water type! the coward! i thought to myself, But wait...maybe that's what the lesson was? but slowly, I started to let go and laugh. "Haha! That Psyche kid is really tough, and he taught me something today…He taught me that I need to train even harder to overcome my weaknesses and that I have to move on with my journey to learn more about myself and my pokemon too! He's just like soul really…they both were the first people I ever lost a battle to, and that will surely be the last, cause it's time that I, too, take my game to the next level!"

I walked over to Cynthia and Spirit, who were standing on the side of the field. "Welp, Cynthia, Core and I will be taking off now, thanks for everything" i said with a smile. "Yes, we will, and take care of Heart, you hear?" said Cynthia, as they said their final fare wells. I turned to Core, "Let's go Core, we have to train some more on our own to learn what true strength is!" I said to him. Core nodded, "Okay, big bro!" he said happily, as he turned and bowed to Spirit, and Cynthia. "Thanks for everything ladies! Stay beautiful!" he said. "Yes, we will, and take care of Heart, you hear?" said Cynthia, as they said their final fare wells. With that, Core and I began our journey once more, headed out of the forest.


	9. PokemonAdventures:Soul 9 Eterna Showdown

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"You have seen nothing yet boy...We will find you...We will kill you!" said a voice in the darkness. "Feel free to try, but as long as i have my team behind me I won't-" i stopped talking to turn around. There was no one there, just eternal darkness and laughter. "FOOL! you have been left alone! you will die, like we claimed your mother and father! you shall be exposed for the pathetic weakling you are, and perish!" i started to panic. "YOUR WRONG! I AM NOT WEAK!" i bellowed. Suddenly, appeared by my side. He placed his hand on my shoulder. "Soul, listen to your heart, fight back with your mind, have faith in that fire in your spirit! as long as you are strong at your core," he knelt over and put a finger on my chest, "You will have the strength fight!" he said boldly. "But how do i get this strength!" i cried out. began to evaporate in thin air, "Bel...eiv...e" he said as he drifted off.

Then suddenly i plummeted further and further into the darkness at great speed. I tried to stop myself, but struggling made me fall even faster. Then a man in a Black and Silver mask popped up in front of me, "WE'RE COMING FOR YOU!" it screamed at a high pitch tone.

I abruptly woke up the next morning in a bed. I was sleeping in one of the cabin rooms from within Eterna Forest. I was sweating and breathing heavily. My palms were sweaty, and my body was shaking. I began to cough violently. Fuckin' Syndicate, i thought to myself, whipping away my sweat. I got up out of my bed, and walked into the bathroom. I took a look into the mirror, peering into my very soul. I pondered about the dream i just had...and Prof. Rowan's words. The man in the black mask...was it Greiger's? It couldn't be it was a different color than his...but what was that then? i took a shower and brushed my teeth, preparing to head out. As i packed my bag, i heard a knock at the door. "Soul~, Cynthia and I just made some breakfast! all the pokemon are eating, you should come out of there!" Spirit said in a charismatic voice. I got dressed and grabbed my back pack, It's time to leave this place, we trained hard now it's time to move on, i thought and i walked out the room.

As i walked into the kitchen, i could see my pokemon running around with Cynthia's, while budew sat next to Spirit. "Good morning, Soul" said Cynthia with toast in her mouth. She was wearing a white robe, still in her see through black night gown, with black slippers, you could definitely tell she had no bra on. "HI Soul!" said Spirit with a smile. She had on a tight White t-shirt, that said "come get some :3" on it, and I could see her bright pink underwear. "whatever..." i said closing my eyes, and walking to my seat.

I didn't register what i just saw in my brain, until i sat down..."WHAT ARE YOU GUY'S DOING?! THIS IS INDECENT!" I said out loud, pointing at them. Spirit began to giggle, as Cynthia looked down at what she was wearing. Cynthia shrugged, and closed her robe, "I'm sure you know what a woman's body looks like already anyway, and besides, i consider myself like an older sister to you guys anyway, so i see no problem here" she dismissed the issue with that and continued to eat like nothing happened. Spirit looked at me innocently, "Oh, my! Soul, i hope you aren't thinking about indecent things now~" she said. "Shut the hell up and put some damn pants on!" i said, as i took some eggs from one of the plates on the table. "Your so rude Soul, i might have to buy you a muzzle! sheesh, pass the hash browns please~!" she said in a joyous tone.

After we ate, i waited HOURS for them to shower up and get ready to leave. Emperor and the others went outside to run around and play some more. I sat on the couch waiting, then i thought about Cynthia. She's the champion...I should use the pokedex to analyze her pokemon...I got up from the couch and walked outside. I looked around, and took note of her pokemon. Garchomp, Gastrodon, Lucario, Milotic and Spiritomb. I copied their data into the pokedex, and looked up their individual strengths. They were all in the level 80's, with her Garchomp being the strongest. Each of her pokemon had fierce attacks, and looked quite formidable. Cynthia walked over to me, peering over my shoulder. "Haha! i'm surprised you didn't do this sooner!" she laughed. I didn't respond, closing my eyes as i put my pokedex back in my pocket.

"You raised them very well...there is no way i can battle you and win at my current state..." i said to her. "They are my friends, and they helped me through a lot of battles. Soul, i want you to join the Champions Banquet at the end of this year, so hurry up and fight me, okay?" Cynthia said with a smile. I nodded in agreement. Cynthia called her pokemon too her, and placed them all in their respective pokeballs. "If you leave toward the west, you will find Eterna City. Your next Gym challenge awaits you there" Cynthia said, pointing in that direction. I nodded and we said our farewells. "Take care of Spirit! She's a nice girl, so don't hurt her" Cynthia said as she took off, headed east.

I stepped back inside to double check the cabin, just so i knew we'd left nothing behind and that we were all packed up. Spirit finally came out of the bathroom ready to leave. "Sorry Soul, my hair got all tangled up, so Budew and I had to de-tangle it, it was practically surgery!" she said with a silly grin. "Whatever, let's just head out…" I said coldly, and we left the cabin.

-Eterna City, 1 hour later.

My mind was set, and all I wanted to do was challenge the Gym leader. Spirit was holding Budew in her arms, humming a tune to it. I pulled out the map from my book bag to examine the landmark locations in Eterna, and found the gym location. "Hey Soul! We should stop somewhere and get some lunch!" Spirit said with a smile. "After my gym battle, I won't stop anywhere until I get my badge..." i responded. Spirit walked up and stood in front of me. "Listen here, My little budew is still just a child! Despite how strong it is, it needs to eat, and drink water! I will not risk my little one's health for your dumb badge!" she said pouting.

Emperor and I simply walked around her, "Then do what you want, I have things to take care of…" I said. Spirit grabbed my shoulder, "Listen! You can't walk into a battle without any energy! They need to eat!" she demanded. I checked my watch, it said 2:30pm, I looked at Emperor, and he gave me a nod. I looked at Huntress and Nightwing in their pokeballs, and they also gave me a nod. "My team is fine. Now I don't have time to waste, Go eat and i'll meet you back at the pokecenter" I said sternly as I walked off.

Emperor and I walked up to the gym some time later, and stepped through the doors. "Welcome! Gardenia is not here at the moment, however she will be back shortly," greeted the receptionist. I walked up to the desk, "How long?" I asked. The receptionist crunched in some keys at her computer, "She should be back from break any minute, let me register you for a battle while you wait! Your name please?" asked the receptionist nicely. "My name is Soul…" i responded, and the lady crunched in my name on a list.

Suddenly, the gym doors burst open "For the last time, Lawna! there just aren't any challengers today!" said a beautiful woman, with a green shoal. Lawna Baker and her camera man were following her in. Right before Lawna was going to complain, they all turned their heads to me. I glared at the woman, "Are you the gym leader here…" I said with a scowl. The woman smiled, "That's right, my name is Gardenia! And I am the Eterna City Gym leader!" she said proudly. Lawna walked up to me, "What a scoop! To think we were out of luck until you came by! Soul, are you here to challenge the gym!?" she asked excitedly.

I ignored Lawna, and pointed at Gardenia, "Then let's get this over with. I know I'm stronger than you already, so I'd prefer we just end this as quickly as possible. Unless of coarse you want to just hand me my badge?" i said with a cocky grin. Gardenia laughed, "You have some fighting spirit in you! Well then let's have us a battle! Follow me!" she said walking through the double doors. I followed her in to an out-door battle field, that was surrounded by many exotic and beautifully colored plants. "Okay then Soul, Rules are simple. This battle will be a double battle, and it doesn't end until both pokemon on either team faint. Are you ready?" asked Gardenia.

The camera man readied his camera, and Lawna gave us a thumbs-up. I nodded in agreement. "Okay then, I'll fight you with these!" she exclaimed, throwing her pokeballs. With a puff of smoke, Roserade and Cherrim appeared on the field. I grabbed my pokedex out of my pocket and examined their battle statistics. "Hmph, strong pokemon you have there, however you have an obvious weakness. Emperor take the stage." I grabbed a pokeball from my waist. "We worked hard in the past few days, so let us show her why we are superior!" I threw the pokeball, and with a puff of smoke, Nightwing appeared.

You know, this isn't the first time I saw a pokemon of the same species as Empoleon…! You must have trained really hard to get your pokemon to evolve so quickly!" said Gardenia praising my efforts. "Don't congratulate me yet, I still have to destroy you in this battle…So then, ladies first, make your move!" I called out. Gardenia smiled, "With pleasure! Cherrim, sunny day GO!" she called to her pokemon. Both pokemon leaped back, as Cherrim attempted to launch a ball or energy into the air. "Nightwing, use Taunt!" i commanded. Nightwing swooped in front of Cherim, as it glowed, gesturing to Cherim to attack. Cherim was startled by Nightwings taunt, that it didn't use it's sunny day move.

"You might have stopped my sunny day, but that doesn't stop the battle!" called Gardenia. I began to grin, "Yeah, you would think that, but I have an ace up my sleeve, Emperor, use ice beam on the ground! Nightwing, use Ice Fang on Roserade!" Nightwing swooped in on roserade, Grabbing it with it's powerful jaws lased in ice, slamming it into the ground. A large impact could be heard. Nightwing grabbed Roserade up once more, then flung it like a rag doll, sending it flying into a nearby wall. It slowly stood up but struggled to get proper footing because the Gym Floor was encased in ice by Emperor's ice blast.

"Damnit! Cherrim! Use reflect to reduce damage! Roserade get some room with leaf storm!" Gardenia cried. Cherrim focused its energy to form a barrier to coat Roserade and Cherrim like an armor. Roserade then summoned leaves from around the garden, firing them at Nightwing! "Emperor Tank that hit!" i called out, "I'm on it!" he responded, as he jumped in front of Nightwing. The attack smashed right into Emperor's chest, but the leaves seemed to bounce right off! not even damaging Emperor's steel exterior. However, Gardenia refused to let up. "Cherrim lock Gliscor down with leech seed, Roserade knock it out with hypnosis!" exclaimed gardenia. Both pokemon ambushed Nightwing, and successfully caught him in their trap. They both turned to Emperor. "Ha! We got your Empoleon all alone now that your Gliscor is disabled! Give up yet?" Gardenia taunted, as Cherrim and Roserade closed in on Emperor. He was unable to move in time to avoid their attack. "NOW! Duo Solar Beam!" cried Gardenia.

Both pokemon launched a full powered solarbeam at Emperor, and a huge explosion shook the gym. Clouds of dust filled the air. Cherrim and Roserade were pleased with the power behind their duo attack. They both had smiles on their faces, and they started walking back toward Nightwing, getting ready to finish it off. "You shouldn't turn your backs on your opponrnt..." I said coolly. "Wha…?" responded Gardenia, but it was too late. The mist cleared, revealing Emperor to be standing their, barely worn down by their attack! "But How!?" asked Gardenia with a shocked expression, "There is no way a pokemon can just take two super powered grass type attacks like that!" she finished. I chuckled, "Heh heh, Emperor and I trained specifically to handle attacks like that! there was no way you could break through his defenses with moves as weak as those! Emperor, seek and destroy!" i exclaimed, pointing at Cherrim and Roserade.

Emperor seemingly warped behind Cherrim and Roserade sliding on the ice with his belly, and blasted Roserade with a full powered Ice beam from point blank range. It went flying across the room yet again, and crashed into the wall, creating its own little crater. "Cherrim! Quick solar beam it!" Gardenia cried. Cherrim quickly responded, ready to launch a solar beam at close range. "You really don't learn, do you? Nightwing now!" i said with a smug grin. before Cherrim could attack, Nightwing charged into it, gnawing it with it's ice covered jaws, another fatal ice fang attack from behind! "Reflect will Protect us!" said Gardenia, but she stopped when she saw Cherrim partially coated in ice! Gardenia turned to Roserade, but it was also frozen to the wall. She ran out to the field to hold her pokemon, with tears in her eyes. "You're pokemon, they are so powerful...but how?" she asked. I looked at Emperor and Nightwing, "When you train hard with your team, bonds are formed...This is simply the power i obtained with those bonds..." Gardenia whipped away her tears, with a brave smile, "Guess you weren't bluffing, huh?" she said with a defeated grin.

"Amazing! Soul you are a genius! We have the whole battle on tape! Jeez, kid! You sure will be famous after this one! Make sure you get to Veilstone City in 3 days, i'm having an all-day video showing getting taped, so make sure you get there so you can be on tv with your battle against Maylene!" Lawna said, as she took off with her camera man. I shook my head, and walked over to Gardenia. "Better luck next time…" I said to Gardenia. As I walked out, Gardenia stopped me. "Hey, let me join you on the walk to the center!" she said to me, and we walked off to the center together.

When we got inside the Pokemon Center, we found Spirit, waiting for me. "Soul! We all saw your battle on tv! you were amazing!" she said greeting us. I nodded in agreement. Spirit turned her attention to Gardenia, "You tried very hard, i liked your gym design too! it was very pretty!" she said, trying to cheer Gardenia up. Gardenia smiled, "Oh! Thank you!" she said, dropping off her pokemon with nurse Joy. Gardenia and Spirit wound up walking off, talking about plants and other nonsense, as I submitted my pokemon to nurse joy as well. We hung around with Gardenia for an hour or so discussing battle strategy, training tactics and talking about what happened in our battle, and eventually our pokemon were completely healed.

We finally got up to leave, when Gardenia asked Spirit to come back with her to the gym. Once we got back to the gym, Gardenia ran into the back of one of her gardens. She came back shortly after, and handed Spirit a couple of small pots. "These are berry pots, and you can grow as many berries in these as often as you like! Knowing that you love gardening as much as I do, you should have these!" she said with a smile. "AWWW! Thanks Gardenia!" said Spirit excitedly.

Gardenia reached into her pocket and grabbed a couple of seeds. "Here! These seeds are the seeds for a Petaya Berry bush! These little seed grow a lot of them in one go, and can even help your pokemon in battle! Emperor, with his special abilities, could make very good use of them so use them wisely!" she said winking at us. "I will plant these right away! Thanks again Gardenia!" exclaimed Spirit, and we said out good byes. "Okay Soul, where to next?" asked Spirit as she carefully put the pots into her bag. "We head to veilstone, for our next challenge, and we'll take on anyone in our way…" I said coolly, and with that we left Eterna City behind.


	10. PokemonAdventures:Soul 10 A True Leader!

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It was a bright day, and the wind gently blew by. In order to get to Veilstone city, We had to go through Mt. Coronet, and pass Solacean town. During the travel, we encountered many wild pokemon and Trainers having fun with their pokemon partners, and tough trainers working hard. Most of the wild pokemon were weak, so I didn't bother catching any. Spirit frolicked about mingling with other trainers and happily playing with every pokemon we passed. We continued down Route 206, Spirit was reading the map and giving directions.

"Ok Soul!" she exclaimed happily, leading the way with the map in front of her face, "We need to get to Route 207, that's where the nearest entrance to Mt. Coronet is!" Budew was skipping by her side happily, screeching about happily. I sighed, "Anyway you can possibly put a muzzle on that deathtrap you call a pokemon?" I said coldly. Spirit folded up the map and whacked me on my head. "Hey! OW! What the hell?" I growled. Spirit puffed up her cheeks, and turned with her hands on her hips, "Hmph! That'll teach you some manners! Right Budew?" she said sweetly, looking back at the map.

"kah!" Budew squealed happily and continued to follow her. Emperor reached out and tapped my shoulder, "Soul…We are being followed…What are your plans of action?" he said quietly. I looked over my shoulder and saw a man shadowing us, quite some distance away. "He won't make his move now…he will do so at the mountain…So let's be patient…" I said quietly, and we continued walking.

As we neared Route 207, a boy and a girl came running toward us frantically. "HEY! HEY!" screamed the boy, "Help us!" he exclaimed. The boy and the girl caught up to us, and they keeled over huffing and puffing. "What's wrong? What's the matter!?" said Spirit walking over to the duo. "Hmph…" I grunted, "My name is Mikail, and this is my, uh, my girl friend Sharah," said the boy wheezing, "We- *cough* someone tried to *cough* we need" stuttered the boy. Spirit grew impatient, "Slow down! Catch your breath and talk!" she said sternly. Mikail finally caught his breath and stood up.

"We were walking into the mountain when we were attacked by some people; it was still pretty dark, even after my Luxio used flash, so we couldn't see who it was exactly!" Mikail started, "When we were attacked, I could see them wearing grayish masks! They wound up stealing Luxio and sealing off that part of the cave! Can you help us dig through? My Sandshrew can't do it all alone since it's still so young!" Sharah finished.

Spirit turned to me, "Soul! We have to help them!" she said with her eyes glowing. I could tell that she had read their souls to check if they were lying. "Like hell…They are pokemon trainers, it's their own faults for letting someone get the jump on them. Handle your own damn problems…" I said coldly, as Emperor and I began to walk on.

Spirit ran over to me and grabbed my arm, "Soul, I know they aren't lying, and they need our help!" she said sternly as her eyes began to glow a bright blue. I pulled my arm away from her, and glared at her, "Think of the damage you'll cause if we do help them! By helping them they learn nothing, they don't struggle! They should have been wiser to their surroundings! If we help them with this now, who will help them with their next little problem in the future? They need to learn to defend what's theirs on their own." I said.

Spirit shook her head. "You're wrong Soul! As fellow trainers it's our duty to help other people in need! We set examples for other trainers to follow, so that way unity among each other can be forged! Do you want to wake up one day realizing that there is no one around you to help you? To help stop the pain!" she protested, tears forming in her eyes. I turned around ready to walk off, "Welcome to my entire childhood…" I said coldly. Before I walked off, Spirit said something that cut me deeper than any knife ever could; "If you turn your back on your own brethren, then you are no better than the Syndicate Thugs themselves! How could you comfortably sit there and do nothing?" she said with disappointment in her voice.

I stopped moving forward, I thought about what she said, and grit my teeth. "Fine, whatever I'll help!" I growled. Spirit smiled happily, "Yes! Ok! Mikail, Sharah! Lead the way!" she said to them. Mikail and Sharah smiled happily, and lead the way to Mt. Coronet's entrance.

-Inside , at the Sealed Corridor-

"This is where it all happened…" said Mikail. I examined the sealed entrance, using the light from Budew's flash and my flash light. I moved some rocks around, and looked for a weak link. "Here…Have Sandshrew dig through right here." I said calmly. We all backed up a few feet, and let Sandshrew dig through. Like a chain reaction, the rocks began crumbling and falling down, revealing a new path. I glared at the two trainers, "You honestly couldn't do that on your own? And you call yourselves trainers? Pathetic…" I said angrily. Mikail and Sharah bowed their heads in embarrassment. Spirit whacked me on the head with the map again, "Okay, what the fuck Spirit!?" I growled. Spirit walked over to them, "Ignore him; he's a bit of a dumb ass. Now then, shall we go deeper into the mountain?" she asked in a sweet voice. Both trainers nodded as they lead the way deeper into the mountain.

We followed a path of stairs deeper into the mountain, and it grew darker and darker. I opened up Nightwing's pokeball, and with a puff of smoke he appeared. I turned to face the trainers. "Unlike you two, my pokemon are trained in stealth and infiltration, as yours should have been. Nightwing!" I turned to him, "I'm sending you further in on your own, Use your high pitch sound waves as a bio sonar to map out the safest route down, and find out where Syndicate is Hiding!" I demanded.

"Wee! kee! Keee!" he screeched in reply. It seems our link isn't established yet, I thought to myself. "I'm counting on you Nightwing, Don't fail us!" I said to him, "Godspeed, friend…" Emperor said, bowing his head to Nightwing. Nightwing disappeared into the darkness, as his screeching grew fainter and fainter. "Now what?" asked Mikail in a worried tone, "We wait for Nightwing's signal, then Spirit and I will go in and get your pokemon." I replied.

"Hey! What about us? It's our pokemon!" Sharah declared. I turned my back on them, "Sorry, but I'd much prefer someone with at least some kind of skill to follow me into enemy territory. Spirit and I have trained together; you both will just get in our way. The fewer the numbers, the less chances of us getting caught, besides, she has the light and is not as completely useless as you two." I said coldly. Sharah got annoyed "Hey you need to watch yourself kid!" she said loudly.

I rushed up on her, covering her mouth and pushing her against a nearby wall. Mikail was stunned at how quickly I moved, and Spirit rushed in behind me trying to yank me off. "THIS is why I don't like amateurs! Keep your fucking voice down; are you trying to get us found out? Syndicate is an elite group of villains! They find us, they kill us, no questions asked!" I growled at Sharah. I finally let go of her, and I turned away. Sharah glared at Mikail, who sat by watching idly. He finally snapped out of his trance and he turned his attention to me. "Hey man! I understand that we messed up, and we got you into our problems, but you've taken it too far! I thank you for your help but you're a complete jerk bro!" he said angrily, approaching me.

Emperor stood over him before he could reach me, and glared down at him. Mikail got intimidated and stepped back a little, "Hey, at least apologize! You can't go around doing things like that to girls!" he said angrily. I sighed and turned to Sharah, "Look, you really need to stay quiet…you guys wait here, Spirit and I will move on. And if we come back yelling "Go, Go" do not hesitate and move, understand?" I said coolly. Mikail and Sharah nodded, as I turned to leave Mikail called to me, "Take this!" he said tossing a pokeball to me, "That's Luxio's ball, you might need it!" I nodded to them, then Spirit and I walked off.

We walked deeper into the cave, and Budew was beginning to lose her energy. "Hold on Soul…" spirit whispered to me. We stopped and huddled by a nearby boulder. Spirit pulled out a bottle of water, and began to feed it to budew. As she cradled budew in her arms like a child, Spirit looked at me. I looked back at her, and we just stared at each other. "What?" I said in annoyed tone. "You need to treat people better…" she said softly. "Oh here we go! Look those assholes don't understand…what they got themselves into…" I began, but as I said those words I thought about Psyche, and our conversation outside the Oreburgh City Gym.

"Sound familiar, right?" Spirit said, as she stared at me with her glowing eyes. I nodded, "Yea…Psyche said that to me- wait a minute…how did you know I heard that before…?" I questioned. Spirit's face turned bright red, "Uh! Umm I uh, lucky guess? Ha ha" she stammered. Before I could question further, we heard thousands of screeching zubat and Golbat passing by. "Emperor, is Nightwing among them…?" I asked Emperor quietly. Emperor shook his head, "No but they want us to follow…What should we do Soul?" he asked.

I thought about the guy who was trailing us earlier, and decided to take a countermeasure. "Emperor…You take Spirit with you and go down the right path, and I will walk down the tunnel on the left. we will rendezvous at the camp they have set up." Emperor nodded, "Wait, why are you going alone? I can handle myself!" Spirit claimed.

I sighed, "I know Spirit, but Budew is still too young for severe combat, so you'll need to put her away and use Emperor." I started drawing on the dirt with my finger, "Huntress will be with me, and don't forget i have Nightwing on stand by. Judging by the pitch of Zubat's squeals, I can tell we are near a very large opening, and that both paths will take us to opposite sides of this opening. We'll surround them, and I will have Huntress cause some chaos. I'll go in find the Luxio, and get the hell out of their quickly. You'll have Emperor keep that entrance safe for me so we can peel, got it?" I asked. Emperor and Spirit nodded.

"You have to rest now Budew…" Spirit said softly to her pokemon, putting the bottle away and returning Budew to its pokeball. I gave the others a nod, and we moved swiftly and silently like ninjas. "Emperor, keep your head up…" I whispered as we separated, "Godspeed, Soul…" he whispered back. The horde of zubat and golbat split up and lead each of us down our respective paths. I opened up Huntress' pokeball, and with a puff of smoke she appeared. "You heard all that right?" I asked her as I dashed down the path. "Yeap! I got it all memorized!" Huntress said in a cutesy voice, drifting beside me.

-Syndicate camp zone, 10 minutes later-

I walked up to a wide opening. It was incredibly bright, and I could see everything perfectly. There were only a couple of tents set up, and some men were working on opening a chest. "The boss wants this jewel, so hurry it up maggots!" said one of the men. There were only four of them, and luxio was nearby one of them, using flash to help with the lighting. They were trying to break into this chest, which was proving to be a hard task. "This luxio sure came in handy; I can still barely see anything! We'll register it to a darkball when we get back to HQ and im gonna ask one of the captains to let me keep it!" laughed the leader of the group.

Okay, I thought, this mission was meant to be an in and out…there isn't a lot of them, and even better Luxio wasn't registered to a dark ball…Which means this is way easier than I thought it would be…I signaled to Huntress. I waved my hands in code, letting her know to advance. We crept in closer, hiding behind rocks. As we got closer, I could see Emperor and Spirit in stand-by on the opposite side of the cavern. "Huntress…when I say now, come out using will-o-wisps and force them back into the wall…I'll nab Luxio and we'll dip out. I said, flipping up my hood.

As I said that, the men finally cracked open the chest, and pulled out what looked like a Crystal Flute. "We got it boys, Mission accomplished, let's move-" I walked out of my hiding spot, clapping my hands. The four of them turned to me in shock to see me. "Well, well! What have we here? Looks like the monkeys finally cracked the nut!" I laughed mockingly. The men became enraged, just as planned. "And who the hell are you?" said the leader. "My name? Oh please! You don't deserve such an honor! Now," I changed from a mocking tone to a serious one. "How about you give me that luxio, and I'll let you guys continue as you were, in fact, why don't you hand over that flute too?…" my words seemed useless, the men already called out their pokemon ready to attack, they each had a golem with them.

So that's how these guys got down here? I thought to myself, the entrances and paths seemed carved out somehow, usually time and decay does that on its own, but the Golem's combined earthquakes shaped the pathways that lead us here, which means they are pretty strong, but not strong enough. "You know what kid, you were right! Your name isn't important! Because you're gonna be under 600 feet of rubble! Earthquake 'im boys!" said the leader. That was my cue, "Huntress, NOW! The trainers take 'em out!" Huntress seemingly teleported in front me, using her will-o-wisp attack to propel the men backwards and into the wall as planned causing the leader to drop the crystal flute.

The Golems' attack began to split up the earth, flinging the flute to toward the entrance by Spirit. "Emperor! Get Spirit and the others out! NOW!" I bellowed, rushing forward, toward Luxio. Without hesitation, Emperor scooped Spirit up, Blastin the floor with his ice beam and proppelling himself forward like a jet penguin, fleeing the cave. The men finally freed themselves from Huntress' barrage of wisps, as the cave was starting to collapse. "Time to go men!" cried the leader, "But boss the flute!" said another, "Fuck the flute! We are gonna get buried alive!" he replied, and they made their escape.

I returned Huntress to her ball, simultaneously throwing and catching Luxio with its pokeball. I tried to make a run for it, but the floor caved from under me, and I was about to plummet down into infinite darkness. Suddenly a hand came out and grabbed mine. "Psyche!" I exclaimed as he pulled me up. We began sprinting towards the exit, "When the hell did you get here!?" I said to him. "Right when you started showing off, I could tell things were gonna get ugly, good call getting Emperor out of here with Spirit!" he replied. We dashed toward the exit, as he snagged the flute from off the ground.

The earth was crumbling at our heels, and the ceiling was caving in behind us, "PUSH YOURSELF! PUSH YOURSELF!" Psyche bellowed, as we sprinted for our lives. Psyche led me to the other side of , leading toward Solacean town, "There's the light! GO GO GO!" he screamed. We jumped out the cave exit, as it caved in behind us. We both rolled to a stop on the ground. "Soul! Psyche! Are you guys ok!" said Spirit rushing to our side. We slowly stood up, and looked each other in the eye. We burst out laughing, "Oh man! You're a friggin boss Soul! You even saved the pokemon!" Psyche said laughing to tears.

"Yea! Oh man thanks for the save! You're a real life saver!" I snorted. We began laughing harder. Spirit and the others looked at us confused. Why wouldn't we laugh? We just narrowly escaped death, for what? For a flute and the life of a pokemon that wasn't even ours? It was pretty funny. We finally shook off the laughter after a while. Emperor and Nightwing came to me, "Good work you two…You led the group out to safety on your own, and were able to take leadership without me being around. Good work" I said to them proudly. Emperor bowed his head, "I was going to turn back for you, but Psyche told us to leave, he said he had your back. Turns out he was the one following us after all," Psyche nodded. "I didn't want to blow my cover, so I had to stay to myself, sorry." He replied.

Psyche walked over to me, "You did good work today…You devised a plan, Got people to safety with your pokemon and even saved a few lifes. Not to mention you prevented them from getting this flute. In my book, you are a hero, so will you accept my offer to join PEACE now?" he asked, holding out his hand. I shook my head, "No, I'm no hero; I didn't even want to get involved. I just believe in finishing what I start." I said coolly. Psyche nodded, "That's okay, but I know what i saw though. Your decisions and the way you carried out that plan, i didn't even bother stepping in. Those are the actions of a leader, and your time to step up will come someday" he said with a smile.

I walked over to Mikail and Sharah, and handed them their pokeball. "Take better care of your pokemon, and be more alert..." I said to them. They nodded to me, "Thank you guys so much," began Mikail, "Hey listen, it's getting really late, and Solacean is close by, do you guys want to spend the night at our place? We have rooms for you and food?" he offered. Psyche began walking off, placing the flute in his bag, "I'm out; I have to report to HQ to drop off this item. Thanks for the fun, Soul" he said, walking off.

Spirit looked at me, "It is pretty late, and Nightwing needs some rest, so should we stay with them?" she asked. She seemed like she really wanted to. "Yea sure whatever…"I said coldly. "Ungrateful son of a-" began Sharah, but spirit stopped her from finishing, "He's actually very appreciative! He's just REALLY bad at showing it! So, lead the way please!" she said happily. So we followed Mikail, Sharah to Solacean town. We spent the night there and rested up for the next day, as our adventure continues.


	11. PokemonAdventures:Soul 11 PreGameTension

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I awoke the next morning, from nightmares about losing my parents yet again. I clenched my chest as I sat up in my bed sweating like a madman. The pain of how I suffered from losing my parents was unbearable, and my thoughts began running rabid in my mind as I looked back at my childhood and reflected upon my ambitions;

Some would say I was blessed to be taken in by a world renowned scientist like , but they don't understand anything. He was never home to cater to my whims, I was a child and he took care of me sure, but he often went away on data expeditions regarding his work. The life of a scientist is not easy; they have to make breakthroughs and discoveries to bring forth grants from the feds, so they can fund their research. Who was I to object? I stood by and watched silently, as to not be a burden to his work, until i was old enough to learn from him.

So I studied, and studied hard, making sure I stayed out his sight and out of his way. Knowledge, I decided that would be my strength; I believe that if I am on my own, then I need to be able to survive on my own. I took every class seriously, I was a strait A student, and an athlete far above even my upper classmen. I devoted myself to learning and training my mind, body and soul so that I can do one thing. Abolish my inner weaknesses. My parents were strong individuals, but they died. All because i was too young...or simply powerless to stop them from dying.

My father, he died a hero, saving innocent lives from a fire. He risked his own life for others, not caring about what happened to him. I watched him, go in and out of that building looking for more people...until the building finally collapsed unto him. They never found the body...I dont know if i have it in me, to willingly risk my life for someone time and time again, knowing that i myself can die. However I lack the strength and the heart to do all that, unlike my father did. He didn't have the physical endurance to save everyone and himself, and yet he still tried. My anger with him is simply for leaving me, right after our mother left us. IT makes me selfish I admit, but I was a child. These thoughts don't hurt me as much anymore, but I work hard so I don't fall victim to my own concious of being unable to do anything.

This is why I am so cold-hearted to people, this is why I say mean things. PEOPLE TAKE WHAT THEY HAVE FORGRANTED, not realizing that people such as myself grow up alone having to fight on their own, having to get these important lessons on their own. It eats at me how spoiled some people have become because of their over dependence on others, which is why I treat people harshly. In my own way though, I feel I help people realize that they have to be independent, they have to learn for themselves through experience.

My thoughts swarmed my head, but I shook it off. I looked down next to me to see Spirit soundly asleep. She was looking rather ecchi as usual, wearing a loosely fit white-beater, with no bra. I shook my head and proceeded to get out of bed, but Spirit suddenly woke up and grabbed my hand. "Hey…soul, come back to sleep, it's still early…" she said in a sweet and soft voice. I glanced over at the digital clock on the dresser by the bed; it said 5:32am.  
I pulled my arm away from her, "I need to start training with my pokemon. An early morning training session is a great way to warm them up, and I have fallen behind on training as it is," I said as I continued to get out of bed.

I washed up and quickly and got dressed. I let Emperor, Huntress and Nightwing out of their respective pokeballs. Huntress stretched and yawned, but Emperor and Nightwing seemed as if they were ready to work hard. "Bout time you woke up" Emperor grunted. Nightwing began screeching, as if trying to say something. I looked at Huntress and nodded for a translation. "Nightwing says he wants to work extra hard today!" She said happily.

I smirked, "I am happy to see you want to work hard, and work hard we shall. You guys are going with me to Route 210! Prof. Rowan told me about a training facility for pokemon there. I wanted to rent it out so we can build on each of your personal strengths and weaknesses and prepare for serious combat with Maylene." They all nodded in agreement. I turned my head and Spirit stood behind me fully dressed, still brushing her teeth. "I'm going too!" she said bluntly. "Do what you want…" I responded, and left the room.

When we walked downstairs, Sharah and Mikail were already up and about. Sharah was wearing nothing but her bra and panties. She looked up at me and Spirit. "Oh! Good morning, Spirit!" she said in a pleasant voice. She then glared at me, "…Soul" she growled with an attitude. I didn't even grace her with a response. "Morning, you two! I made waffles!" Mikail said joyously. "What are you guys doing up so early?" Spirit asked glaring at Sharah. Before Sharah could answer, Spirit grabbed my arm and forcefully turned me around.

"WHAT woman?!" I growled. "SHUT UP!" Spirit pouted, "Sharah I'm sorry, but Soul is only allowed to look at me, well, like that!" she said blushing. Sharah looked down at herself, shrugged, and left the room. Mikail scratched his head, "Heh heh! Sorry about that! Sharah and I rarely have company! As to why we are up, we always wake up early and head over to Route 210. You see, we have a training facility there, and some trainers like to show up early, but today it's closed since I have to do some equipment maintenance!" he responded.

I looked at Mikail in astonishment. "You and Sharah run that facility in route 210?!" I questioned him almost immediately. "Well no, Sharah was just a local trainer. She comes to my gym very often to train her skarmory and blissey. Her father needed her pokemon yesterday, so that's why we couldn't go get luxio ourselves. And my sandshrew is still very small, and it hasn't trained at all yet" Mikail placed a few plates on the table, and put some eggs onto the plates. Sharah walked back in reclaiming her seat. She began eating furiously, glaring at me.  
I looked up at her, "Got a problem?" I said to her coldly. She swallowed her food, "Yea I have a loser at my table…" she retorted. I grinned, "This loser would eat your defensive core alive…" I said to her. She looked away, "Hmph!" she grunted, as she ate some more eggs. "Hey Sharah, if you don't mind me asking…How did you get with Mikail? You guys are polar opposites…he's so down to earth and you're so lively and...well, aggressive…" asked Spirit.

Mikail and Sharah stared at each other, and began to blush. Sharah dropped the googoo eyes quickly though, "Well he grew a pair, and asked me out one night, being a girl there was no way I'd refuse some free food! So I watched him more carefully after that, and I saw how hard he worked with the trainers at his facility. He took care of the facility night and day, cleaning on his own, and preparing food to sell to the trainers and their pokemon, raising pokemon that trainers request him too. He is an excellent breeder, and well I fell in l-, I mean I like him for his work, and what he does! He works hard so I kinda like that!" Sharah began stuffing her face some more, too embarrassed to continue. "AWWW how cute!" Spirit cried happily.

I finished my food, and looked at my pokemon. They finished their food quickly, and we stood up. Emperor and I said no words, as we made our ways out of the room. "Hey! Aren't you going to thank us for the food?!" Sharah asked. I stopped right before leaving the room, and turned to them. "No…" I said abruptly, and I left. "UGGHH! What's his DAMAGE!" growled Sharah. Spirit chuckled, "He's like that sometimes hee hee! Umm, so I'll thank you both on his behalf and mine!" she said with a smile. Mikail shook his head, "Spirit I don't know what you see in a jerk like Soul!" he said scratching his head. Spirit looked down, her eyes began to glow "Soul is in a lot of pain. I can't fully help him just yet; he kinda blocks me out…but the Soul I love hasn't arrived just yet! I'll get him to come around in due time!" she said in a pleasant tone. Sharah and Mikail looked at Spirit like she had 10 heads.

-Later that day, at the Training Facility-

We stood by as we watched Mikail open the gates to his facility. It was a huge building, and when we stepped inside it seemed infinitely bigger. "Soul, Sharah the facility was supposed to be closed for renovations today, so you both have all of the gyms and equipment to yourselves," he began as he led Spirit and myself into the lobby. "The gyms have the latest technology for both trainers and pokemon. You work out as a team for the most critical breakthroughs! Please try not to make any huge messes! I will be downstairs in the basement fixing up the newest equipment, so if you need me use these!" he handed us walkie-talkies.

We each took one. Mikail said his good byes and he ran off. Sharah turned to face us, "I have my own training regime and I prefer Soul didn't see it, so I'm going off too. If you guys need anything there are computers all over the place. Punch in what kind of training you're looking for and it will teleport that said equipment to the nearest room for you. You're welcome to join me though, Spirit!" she said to Spirit and smiling. Spirit smiled back "Sure maybe in a little bit!" she said. Sharah nodded in agreement, and walked off in the opposite direction.  
I turned to Spirit, "Well then…I'll be seeing you…" I said. Emperor and I turned to walk away, "I'm going with you…" Spirit protested. I shook my head no, "I want to train with my team alone. We have some strategy to prepare, and things to discuss and I don't want to be interrupted." Spirit nodded, "Please, don't overdo it Soul…" she said softly, and she headed in the same direction as Sharah.

I found a big room nearby that laargely resembled a dojo fighting arena, and I was glad to have it all to myself. I closed and locked the doors behind me, as I let out Nightwing and Huntress from their poke balls. My pokemon gathered around me, and we sat down in a circle. "Okay, we've been doing great so far, our efforts easily grabbed us 2 badges. The next gym leader, Maylene, uses fighting type pokemon. I'm sure this battle will be a 3v3 battle, so I am gonna be frank, Emperor I want you to sit out this one if possible…" I said sternly.

Huntress gasped, and Nightwing chuckled. "Heh! So much for team leader! You can't even fight in the next gym battle! I will prove my merit, and show you the art of a true ninja!" Nightwing said in a raspy voice. Emperor stood up, "No! This is an outrage! I don't agree with this decision!" Emperor said standing now. I glared at him, "Please be seated when your commander speaks" Emperor's face was filled with disgust, but he sat back down. "Emperor you are arguably my most powerful pokemon i have, but right now, your strategy involves you suppressing your own health to dish out damage over time. Which also allows you to increase your attack power when done correctly, but I can't have you fight a physically strong pokemon that clearly has a type advantage…" I said sternly.

"Don't worry, Huntress and I can lead the team to a secured victory. Our power not only resists that of fighting type pokemon, but outright demolishes them. She won't even see what hit her!" Nightwing said again. I turned to face Batwing, "Seems like our bond has strengthened…I can hear your words now…" I said to him.  
Nightwing turned to me in surprise, and bowed his head holding a wing across his chest, "My master, it is an honor to finally fight by the side of a real warrior! When you took me from that Syndicate grunt, I was scared you'd be just as worthless as the trainer that owned me before! He was weak, and his decisions were filthy! You however, have the cunning and strengths of a ninja! Your thought process is suited for combat; I shall gladly fight for you with my life!" I nodded to Nightwing, "I will count on you then, don't disappoint me."

I turned to Emperor. He sat there shaken, unable to find words to defend himself. "Look Emperor, facts are facts. At the end of the day your typing leaves you in a serious disadvantage. This is not to say you are a weak pokemon, but I'd prefer keeping you out of seriously damaging battles, especially when our victory is not guaranteed. I wouldn't usually take these precautions, but we know Maylene from when she visited with her father, who was usually only stopped by to borrow money for his gambling habits. She trains hard despite her financial status, and has a great sense of Battle. Not to mention she had an extremely powerful riolu at the time…we lost many battles against her and that riolu, even under my command."

Nightwing and Huntress gasped when they heard Emperor lost multiple battles before. Emperor roared, and punched the ground, breaking the floor. "GRRR!" he cried angrily. I closed my eyes, "Seeing as you could not stand up to that riolu before has aided in my judgment. I confess, even with my direct calls and maneuvers during that battle, Riolu's sheer speed and strength, combined Maylene's cunning bested us. You were nowhere near a physical match then. Albeit your recent training and extraordinary feats, we have to assume that she has trained twice as hard and twice as long as we did."

Emperor faced me, "THOSE were our very first battles together! We were not in full sync as trainer and pokemon! She already had experience fighting and training with riolu from the get-go!" He declared. I nodded, "Indeed, this only solidifies my argument. Imagine our recent growth in power from our recent endeavors, now factory in our recently acquired combat ability and skill." Nightwing, Huntress, and Emperor nodded. "With that in mind, factor in the gap you had from the beginning, throw in the fact that there was no type advantage from either party, and now throw in the gym leader training and battle experience AND the cunning and strength that Malylene had as a trainer from before. The possibilities of her skill will be IMMENSE, and we can count on her training hard day in and day out, that's just how she was!"

It grew silent, "This being said, I don't guarantee the safety of Huntress and Nightwing either" i said coldly. Nightwing retaliated quickly, "Nonsense! We still hold type advantage!" he declared. I shook my head, "The last time maylene lost a gym challenge was 3 years ago, and it was to Platinum, one of those legendary trainers. This is why we will train, and we will train HARD. I refuse to become a statistic. The gym leader circuit I have selected to take on is actually the toughest of sinnoh's gym leaders. Although Roark and Gardenia were disappointing, you can count on a very difficult road ahead of us. So from here on out we have to train as if our lives were on the line."

I walked over to a computer, and punched in some codes. A set of ankle and wrist weights appeared In the transmitter that was nearby. I called everyone close, and attached these weights to their respective arms and legs. I then attached a set to myself. "We will start training from now until late in the evening. We will fight with these weights, starting at 50lbs, and we'll gradually increase the weight by 20 every hour. We have talent, but hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. We won't be caught being weak and unprepared." I paused and briefly thought about my parents…I then turned to my team, "Ladies and Gents, welcome to the big Leagues…"

-4 hours later, 180 lbs of weight-

I ran out of the way of an incoming attack, grabbing another pokeball on my waste. My moves were becoming sluggish with the extra weight, but with all of my might, I threw the pokeball at Emperor. He deflected the ball, aiming it at Nightwing, who narrowly swerved out of the way. Nightwing charged at Huntress with blistering speed, attacking with his IceFang technique. She dodged it and attempted a counter-attack with Swagger, but Emperor saw an opportunity to attack her as she focused on Nightwing and fired off his Scald attack.

Instead of continuing the attack, she used the momentum to hit the ground, sending her airborne, leaving Nightwing behind to take the attack. Nightwing saw the Scald coming, but had no time to move, and was blasted into the nearest wall. "Nightwing! You know the rules! You were hit, increase your weight by 40, and give me 10 laps around the gym before you rejoin the game, DON'T YOU DARE skip any laps! and you better be done with that in 10 minutes!" I bellowed, dodging a will-o-wisp from Huntress.

This game was a severe form of dodge ball, if you got hit, you temporarily increased your wait by 40, do 10 laps, and rejoin the game after decreasing the weight. This exercise was to increase endurance, durability, stamina and focus. It also helps with dodging and aiming, and keeping calm under pressure.

Nightwing started gliding around the gym, barely keeping airborne, struggling to fly on. "CMON! Nightwing don't quit! Don't let this beat you!" cried huntress, barely dodging one of my pokeballs. "Good, Huntress! Always motivate your teammates!" I called to her, escaping one of Emperor's ice blasts. Huntress staggered to her feet, and began to take lift off again. I went to throw another ball at her as she staggered, But Emperor pretty much warped in front of me, using his ice beam to make a path on the ground to slide on. "OHH FUCK!" I cried, and he blasted me with his low-grade Scald. I was sent flying backwards.

"You know the rules Soul!" he said, as he went after Huntress. I punched the ground, "Dammit! It won't happen again!" I said panting. My body was ready to give, but to lead a team is to lead by example, so I put up the weight and began to sprint. Nightwing finished his laps, and got back into the battle, sneak attacking Emperor in the back, sending him for a jog right behind me.

We eventually all collapsed in fatigue, completely drained from all the fighting. The room felt like a sauna, and you could hear the heavy breathing all around us. "Ok guys…W-We did great today. We worked hard, we got fit, and our bodies ache. We have an important battle tomorrow evening, so let's all rest up…"I said wearily. I slowly sat up, barely being able to take off the weights on my arms. Huntress and Nightwing went to aid Emperor, taking off his weights. He took the most punishment, since he was bigger and a lot easier to hit. I put everyone in their poke balls, grabbed a towel and walked out of the training room.

Spirit was with Sharah and Mikail in the front lobby, laughing and eating. My stomache began growling, since I didn't eat anything since breakfast, and neither did my pokemon. "OI! Soul! How was the training? Get anything done?" asked Mikail. I grunted and slumped myself into a chair next to Spirit. "Oh tough guy wants to act hard, like we all didn't do some training today!" said Sharah. Spirit chuckled, "Well you haven't seen one of Soul's sessions! He trains ridiculously hard! When we trained with Cynthia, he collapsed with Emperor for almost an entire day! But it looks like he took it easy today!" they all laughed, but I was in no mood for games. My arms were killing me, and I could barely lift them.

My team worked hard, so I wanted to treat them to some nice food and pampering, so they don't feel like I overwork them and give them no sense of gratitude. "I'm headed to the center…" I said coldly, standing up from my seat. "Nonsense, I took pokemon hospitalization classes, and I have a government certification for poke care! I'll take care of your 'mons for you!" Mikail said, standing up and holding out his hands. I didn't trust Mikail…however the nearest poke-center was all the way back in Solacean, so I handed them to him, and he walked off. "Makes sure you feed them with the best food you got! The good stuff you hear? And they need some pampering!" I called to him. He waved his hand and walked into a room behind his register.

I sat back down and closed my eyes. "Hey, soul…I made some food, you need to eat…" said Spirit softly, handing me a plate of food. I grunted, and left her hanging. Spirit got pretty irritated, "HEY! Listen, take the damn food!" she growled. I looked at her begrudgingly. "Thank you Spirit…I really would love to eat…but right now I don't have the energy…" I said coldly. She sighed and pulled up a chair next to me. "Then why didn't you say that instead of just leaving me their! Jeez you're such a jackass sometimes!" she said. She placed the food on the table, and grabbed a spoon. She took some food and held it up for me, "Hear, eat!" she said with a smile.

"I prefer that you d-ohmf!" I began to protest, but as I opened my mouth she stuffed the spoon in my mouth. "MMMM good right? Here have some more!" she said in a pleasant voice as she scooped up some more rice. I chewed and swallowed, "Look im perfectly capa-ohmffmm!" I began again but she didn't hesitate to stuff my mouth again. "AWWW! Just like a baby!" laughed Sharah. Spirit chuckled, "my mom used to say that I cried a lot when I was a baby, cause I was always hungry. So she took the opportunities to put food in my mouth when I opened it to cry more!" Spirit and Sharah both started laughing. "In other words dip shit, quit yo' bitchin!" laughed Sharah. Mikail soon returned and stood there with a grim look on his face. Sharah turned to him, "What's wrong hun?" she asked. Mikail stared at me, "Soul, your pokemon were absolutely decimated! They were so damaged and hurt from your training! How could you abuse your pokemon like that!" he said angrily.

Right as he said that I found the strength to stand up, knocking the food out of Spirit's hands. The dish broke on the ground and the room got silent, as I stared eye to eye with Mikail. "Who the hell do you think you are…telling me I abuse my pokemon? Do you think I'm some kind of wimp who'd just let you walk in here and bad mouth my training exercises? The hell do you think this is?" I said sternly.

Mikail shook his head, and pointed at the door, "The only reason I don't call the police and have your trainer license revoked is for two reasons! One you are the step son of one of the greatest professors' around, and two, to my amazement, they did exactly what you are doing to me right now! When I said I'd make the call, it seemed as though they pushed me into a corner, ready to attack me for you!" Mikail slammed his hand on the table. "WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU!? These pokemon trust you! They clearly would do anything for you! And you treat them like this? They were dehydrated! and not well fed, so there was no nourishment! How do you call that training?!" he cried.

I glared at Mikail and walked up to his face, "You know what I see? I see a loser…a loser, who is rich, has his own little business, a cute girlfriend, and cute happy little pokemon. I see a man with no heart. That's why your pokemon was taken from you so easily, and you couldn't get it back on your own. Cause you lack the discipline, and the strength! So how about you grow a FUCKING pair of ballz and step out of my business." I walked up to him and whispered in his ear, "If you don't like my methods to obtain power feel free to call the cops, feel free to get my license revoked, feel free to do whatever you can to try and take MY team from me," I began, darkening my voice.

"But be assured, that nothing in this world will keep us apart, nothing in this world will break our friendship. And when we do reconnect and find each other, you're first on our little "hit list" So you can take your little pretentious "I wanna help pokemon" ass out of my face, and let me lead my team." I backed up, glaring him in the eye again, and sat back down next to Spirit. Sharah stood up, "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YO-" she began, but Mikail held his hand out stopping her. "Soul, man to man I understand. It's true that sometimes there just isnt food available, or you don't have money to get something, or even if you get stranded in a mountain. But you have to take care of your pokemon's health. The training is good and well received by them, but they will agree to anything you tell them to do. So be cautious of them. Got me?" Mikail said.

I sighed and nodded, "Yea man…whatever…" I said making it seem as if I didn't care, although I did care. what he said was a bit true, I did work them a little hard today. Mikail nodded, "Now if you don't mind, clean up the mess on the floor, as I go back and tend to your wounded…" he said in a dominant tone. I didn't retaliate this time, cause I knew I fucked up, so I nodded to him in agreement. He went back behind his counter and went into the back room. Spirit got up to pick up the food, but I stopped her. "He asked me man to man to clean that, so I have to…" I said to her. She nodded and sat back down.

A few hours later, Sharah and Spirit went off back to Solacean. I waited behind with Mikail, since he was still taking care of my pokemon, and finishing up his computer maintenance. He walked out the back room with their pokeballs on a tray. "Here" he said holding out the tray. I took the pokeballs. He placed the tray on the table, and handed me a bag. "These are sitrus berries. Give each of your pokes 2 of these before your match, and they will be 100% fine for battle. Right now they just need some rest, ok?" I nodded and peered into the pokeballs. They were already sound asleep, looking vibrant and healthy as they napped.

I took out 500$ from my pocket, and handed it to Mikail. He took it, and gave me back 200$, "Discount for today, don't worry about it…" he said. He went back to the register and put the money in the cash drawer. We walked out the front doors of the facility, as he closed and locked the doors behind us. He pulled down a metal gate, and locked that as well. We walked back toward solacean in silence. The only thing that could be heard was the cold wind blowing by us, and the Kricketune playing their tunes. "Hey soul I'm sorr-" began Mikail. "No, don't apologize. Apologies are worthless, if you didn't mean to do or say something than you wouldn't have done or said anything in the first place…" I said coolly, "Besides you didn't REALLY say anything wrong, Until you told me you were gonna call PokeAid on me…"(like children's aid, get it?).

He nodded in agreement. I could tell that he felt guilty with what happened tonight. "Oh, by the way..." Mikail began, reaching in his bag. I looked over at him, and saw him pull out a purple glowing sphere, and a pearl in the shape of a crescent moon. "These are special items, the Pearl is called a Moonlight Crest Charm, it helps pokemon regenerate energy 4x's faster over time, giving them more durability. The sphere is called a toxic orb. It poisons the pokemon holding the item severely. Give the crest to Emperor, and this sphere to gliscor, it will give them incredible defensive capabilities." he said. "Thanks..." i said. Mikail nodded, so I held out my hand to give him a pound. Mikail smiled and he gave me a pound, and we walked back to Solacean like bros.


	12. PokemonAdventures:Soul 12 Art of War!

Please continue to post your reviews for me! And please pass along my story to friends if you think it's really good. The more views/reviews I get, the more I write :D thanks!

There always seems to be a moment in time when you have to make a choice. These moments pass day in and day out. Most choices are easily made; others require a lot of thought. We reflect upon what we choose down the road, and they define who we are, or who we will become. As I dwelt on these thoughts, I crept out of bed making sure not to wake up Spirit, who was sound asleep. I took a bath, and washed up, getting ready for my gym battle with Maylene later in the evening.

Emperor and I walked out of our room, making our way into the living room downstairs. I sat down on a nearby couch, and Emperor sat in front of me. "Soul, I'm still here if you need me for that battle." He said calmly. I nodded, "I hope I don't need to, however Maylene is an extremely powerful trainer…especially after the training she had with Volkner. It may come down to a battle between you and her Lucario…" I looked over at Emperor, "You know…she was the first real rival we ever had…her serene grace in combat was awe inspiring…She is definitely a woman I could see myself with…" I said.

Out of nowhere Spirit pops up, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?" she exclaimed. I looked at her coldly, "Well look who's eavesdropping…weren't you just asleep?" I grunted. Spirit walked over to me angrily, "WHAT did you just say…" she said sternly, her eyes glowing again. "What are you doing now…?" I asked her. Spirit gritted her teeth, grabbing me by the collar, and lifting me out of the chair. "This Maylene chick, do you still feel that way for her?" she said frantically. I grinned, "Jealous are we…?" I said in a mocking tone. Spirit let go of my collar, and I sat back down on the couch. "Soul…you may have liked her in the past, but don't go barking up the wrong tree…" she said abruptly turning away from me, "Besides, I don't mind beating someone down for what's mine…" she said walking back upstairs.

Emperor began snickering, "If you got girl problems, I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems, but a girl ain't one!" he laughed. I sighed out loud, "She misunderstood me…Spirit didn't realize I was talking about Maylene in the past tense…I only admire her as a trainer now. That's what she gets for eavesdropping" I said.

I stood up and clenched my fist, "I will become the greatest trainer in all of sinnoh! Nothing can stop us..." I declared. Emperor stood up beside me, grabbing my fist, "We will beat down anyone who stands against us! As long as we have each other's back, no one can beat us!" he grinned. We both nodded in agreement. I let go of Emperor's wing, when suddenly a window in an upstairs room slam shut. Emperor looked up the stairs, "What was that?" he asked. I closed my eyes and grinned, "How interesting…Come Emperor, I want to see how this turns out…" I said as i walked towards the door. "What do you mean…?" Emperor questioned. I opened the door, then turned to face Emperor, "Come on, it's gonna be a cat fight!" I responded. And we quickly left Mikail's house.

Meanwhile, on Route 210… =From Spirit's Perspective=

I ran. I ran, and I ran. My visions have become unclear to me, and I don't understand why. My ability to see into a person's soul was passed down from daughter to daughter in my mother's side of the family. We can peer into our own futures as well, and we can even change our futures to better our lives using said knowledge. My family is rich because of this strange ability, infact most of the people in my family are very successful. My mother simply chose to be a dedicated foster mother, which was a path she found suitable for herself.

My mom, her mom, and every mom before them has used their gifts to help the family, and those around us grow. I, however, have yet to find a use of my power. The only thing about my future I see is that one day Soul will propose to me, and we will have a family, and his son will grow to be the world champion…just like his father. Recently, this vision is harder to see, and newer visions have taken its place, one where Soul dies, or where Emperor dies, or where we fail to save a group of people, or fail to save one of the legendary pokemon trainers. I have been doing all I can to prevent these events from taking place because…I love Soul, and I also never want to see anyone get hurt.

He doesn't realize what I go through, and then suddenly he talks about some trick from back in the day? He has no idea what I'm capable of! I bet he doesn't even know that I know he's following me. I may not see him, because he's really good at concealing himself, but I know he's there, because I know him. From the first moment I met with him in the pokemon center a month ago, my power has been directly linked to him, and our souls have been intertwined. Just by peering into his soul, I knew EVERYTHING about him. How his parents died, how he struggled alone, how he fought with the bullies in school, how he saved Emperor from dyeing with Prof. Rowan's help. His past, and his memories, and his entire thought pattern; I know them complete, as if I were thinking for him.

I slowed down to catch my breath. I walked up to a nearby tree, and leaned against it. I looked around to see if I could spot Soul, but he was too well hidden. When I think about it, my power has been phasing in and out…ever since I started traveling with Soul. I wonder if my emotions toward him are messing with my mind, even my body has been going through some critical changes…and it's all because of some boy…"ARGH!" I screamed, as I stood up and ran again. I had to confront Maylene, and see if shee feels anything toward Soul as well.

I walked up to the front doors of Veilstone gym. There was a note on the door stating 'too busy training for the battle on t.v. tonight, so no challengers today please!' "Hmph…This won't get rid of me so easily…" I grunted, and ran around to the back of the gym. There was a huge fence keeping people out. I reached over to my belt and took Flora's pokeball. "Flora, please help!" I said opening up her pokeball.

With a puff of smoke, my Roselia appeared before me. "Flora, use leech seed on the fence! I want to climb up using the vines, ok?" I said to it in a soft voice. Flora nodded, and did as I told her. I climbed up using the vines, and returned Flora to her pokeball. I hopped down to the other side, and saw a giant outdoor pokemon arena, surrounded by a beautiful Japanese-like garden. There was a small river that surrounded the entire ring, and there were nice wooden bridges on both sides. I walked up to the center of the ring, to get a better look around, when the back door to the gym slid open.

A pretty girl with short pink hair, wearing a blue leotard approached me. "Hi there…I'm Maylene…May I ask what you are doing in my training arena…?" she asked. I looked at her sternly, "I wanted to ask…Do you know a man by the name of Soul…?" Maylene nodded, "Yea…he's gonna be my opponent tonight, are you a fan…?" she asked. I ignored her, and began peering into her mind. I accessed her memories, her thoughts, her personality; I analyzed her down to the T.

"Uh hello…? Are you aware that your eyes are changing color…?" she said, pointing at me with a hesitant smile. I snapped out of my trance…for some reason, i couldn't read her! "You…you like Soul don't you…You guys kept in touch quite often…" I said bluntly. At first, Maylene was taken back, but she responded. "Well…it's complicated between Soul and I. We battled a lot when we were younger, but that stopped after I became a Gym Leader. The last time we battled-"

"You beat him and Emperor in a battle, pretty badly I know…" I retorted, cutting her off. Maylene seemed shocked that I knew that. "Do you know Soul or something…?" she asked. I sneered at her, "Hmph that doesn't concern you, I simply came here to just say that Soul is mine. You can be friends still if you want, but that's as far as it will go between you two" I said rather brashly. I didn't realize how rude I could be, but I didn't care. I needed to claim my territory, and make it known. Not to be dominant…but more so to convince myself that my vision of us together is true.

Maylene chuckled, "You must be some crazy fan girl, but Soul and I are very clo-" she began, but I cut her off again. "Look, you don't know Soul like I do. I know that you have kept in touch. You exchanged work-out ideas, ways to toughen up pokemon, plans for traveling. And there were some lovey-dovey messages floating around back then. Now, listen to the two key words; BACK THEN. He isn't romantically involved with you…and I came here to make sure that was the case. I already can tell by just looking at you…thanks for your time, I'm leaving…" I said coldly, as I spun around. "You talk big little girl, but you can't come to my house telling me who I can talk to and who I can't! Quite frankly I've NEVER been in love with soul, we just trained together a lot as kids! I don't know why I'm telling you this, but I do still have feelings for him, but ONLY as friends, and I'm sure it's the same for him!" Maylene said, shrugging her shoulders.

I turned back around to face her, "I know you both grew up together, but you weren't there for him when he was alone and struggling by himself. You couldn't feel his pain like i can... Sure you may relate since your dad is a gambler and you lived poorly for some time yourself, and that incident with team Galactic three years ago made things harder for you as well." I began, "…I thought there was something more than just a friendship between you guys..." I said. Maylene chuckled, "No! not at all! actually i think your dedication to him is rather awe inspiring! your a pretty ballsy chick!" she said, walking over and placing a hand on my shoulder with a smile. "So, What's your name?" Maylene asked.

"Her name is Spirit, she's been following me around for quite some time…She's actually kind of a pest…" said Soul coolly. Maylene looked confused, as she looked around to see who was talking. "Soul, I knew you were following me, how much longer are you going to stay hidden…" I said. Soul came out from behind one of the trees in the garden, alongside Emperor. "Wha-, How! When did you guys get there?" Maylene asked in astonishment. "Losing your edge Maylene? You shoulda sensed me a long time ago…I was here for the whole discussion." He said.  
Maylene began to blush, "Well…how long have you been with this girl?" she asked. "A month" we both responded in unison. Maylene turned back to me, "You conniving…Soul! i bet you played some kind of trick on this poor girl!" she exclaimed.

I nodded my head, "He said earlier that he had romantic feelings for you when you were kids, and how he'd like to pursue them now " I said. Maylene took a step back, "He…what…but I!…?" she stammered. Maylene began to blush, "EWW! your like a brother to me soul! that's disgusting!" she said in a flustered tone. "I understand…so that's what set you off like that…" Maylene said, turning to me. I nodded to her. "Well then…I still have much to do, and I also need to prepare for our match, which will begin later…so Prepare yourself Soul, because I'm going all out in our battle! Now if you both don't mind, I'd like you to leave so my team and I can do some warming up…" she said, as she turned and walked into the gym.

Soul turned to me, staring me in my eyes. I tried to read his thoughts, but for some reason I couldn't at all… "Soul…" I whispered. He turned away from me, "…Now I have some last minute training to do myself. So I'll be going…" he walked up to the fence, with Emperor following him. "Oh and Spirit," he began, looking back at me, "I won't lose…" He said then hoped over the fence effortlessly, and Emperor followed. I let out a sigh of relief, I'm glad he doesnt have any feelings for her after all! i thought.

(back to Soul :P)  
Veilstone City Gym, 3 hours later…=From Soul's Perspective=

"Well then…" I said to myself. I was standing in a locker room within the Veilstone City gym. You could hear the crowd roaring through the walls, their anticipation for a great match was clearly evident. I looked at the pokeballs on my waist, staring at my pokemon. "Team meeting…everyone out!" I said, as I released them. "We already know the course of action, as challengers we get to choose who's sent out in the first round. I'll use the pokedex to scan what we're up against, and we'll use that data to decide who starts things off. Remember this battle is going to define us as trainers, and put us on the radar as one of sinnoh's top battlers. If you can, make sure you don't let yourselves get knocked out like chumps. You go down, you take them down with you, got it?" I said sternly. Everyone nodded in agreement, "Good, let's go out there and show the world who the real ace trainer is," I said. I returned everyone to their pokeballs, and stepped out into the hallway.

When I walked out, Spirit was waiting for me. I didn't look at her, and I walked right by her without saying a word. "Soul…" she said, stepping toward me, but I didn't turn to look at her. "Soul…Good luck in your battle!" she said softly. There was a slight pause, and only the cheers from the fans could be heard. "Like I said before…I won't lose…" I said reassuringly. I turned to face Spirit, "Just watch…" I said, and I walked into the spotlight.

As I entered the arena, the crowd roared, greeting me like a hero. "LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, LET'S WELCOME THE MAN WHO WANT'S TO TAAAAKE IT AAAALL! YOUR FAVORITE UNDERDOG, SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUL!" screamed the hype man. Again the crowd roared, as I stepped up to my post. I walked onto a steel platform, and it elevated me to a platform that stood over the field, it gave me a great view over the everything, giving me a clear view of what will be going on during the battle.

Suddenly, the music changed, and the announcer took a different tone, "AND NOW, WHOM WE ALL'VE BEEN WAITING FOR , THE QUEEN OF MARTIAL ARTS, THE DAIME OF KARATE, THE GIRL WHO CAN'T QUIT, PUUUUUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER FOR MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYLEEEENE!" the crowd went crazy, as she walked up to her side's platform. As she rose to the top, I analyzed the field. I took note of the boulders lying around, and started developing game plans in case things start going badly for us. Maylene finally stepped up and walked onto her platform, with her Lucario following close behind her.

"NOW A FEW WORDS FROM OUR GYM LEADER BEFORE WE GET STARTED!" declared the announcer. The crowd's uproar died down as Maylene cleared her throat, and adjusted her mic. "Well then thank you all for coming out to support this battle! It's been a while since we got such an…upscale…opponent to challenge us!" she said mockingly as she shrugged. The crowd laughed, and it seemed like the cameramen loved every photo op, as they clicked madly on their cameras.

"All jokes aside, Soul and I have a lot riding on this battle, and I'm afraid I can't afford to lose! Good luck to you Soul! May the best Trainer win!" she said smiling, holding up a thumbs-up. Before the announcer spoke, I cut in. "Save the niceties for someone who cares…This is a battlefield, so bring you're A game, or I WILL walk all over you…" I said coldly. The crowd roared and thousands of pictures were clicking away. Maylene laughed it off like it was nothing, as referee stepped up to the field ready to give out the rules.

"This will be a 3 on 3 battle. All three rounds will be conducted, and the judges will grade the winner based on the number of rounds won. Your overall performance and synergy as trainer and pokemon will be tested as well. In a result of a tie, a sudden death battle will be commenced, in which two pokemon OF THE JUDGES CHOICE will conduct battle. A recess will occur for an HOUR if a sudden death does occur, in which both pokemon can heal injuries and return to combat. One pokemon may be chosen per round, and the challenger chooses who sends out their pokemon first. Loser chooses who sends which pokemon out next round. Ready your pokemon!"

Maylene nodded at Lucario, and it nodded back. She grabbed a pokeball from her waist, and threw it out into the playing field. With a puff of smoke, a Machoke appeared. I opened up my pokedex and scanned machoke's data. It was lv 26, had multiple possible abilities, but the pokedex couldn't function at 100% inside the gym for some reason. The data was insufficient, so I couldn't discover its moves or exact ability. "Tch, just my luck…Where gonna have to fight this blind…" a thought aloud, "It's a fighting type…pure fighting…Huntress, time to burn some prey…" I said as I released Huntress from her pokeball."Soul, guide me to victory!" she said blowing me a kiss. "Would I settle for anything less? Get your head in the game!" I said back to her. Then Huntress floated to the center of the stage, where Machoke was, "Right then! Let's get to it!" she said.

"Battlers ready? BEGIN!"

"Start things off quickly! Use thunder punch!" shouted Maylene. Machoke ran toward Huntress, charging its fists with electricity. "Huntress, get some distance, we need to bait out this thing's ability!" I cried out to her. "I'm on it!" she declared as she dodged the incoming thunderpunch. Maylene smiled, "Now Machoke!" she said. Machoke's eye shined, as he quickly reversed his body motion, completely redirecting the punch.  
Huntress was hit dead on, and was sent hurtling backwards. "It's ok huntress! Gain your composure back!" I said to her. Huntress nodded and stood back up, ready to fight. Based on that things movement, I thought, it seems like it has the "no guard" ability! Which means neither of our attacks can miss! Then a will-o-wisp should completely cripple this thing for an easy victory!

"Huntress I need more data! Use recover and get back in there!" I called to her. "Ok!" said Huntress, as she began to glow. She gained back all the hp she had just lost, and went after Machoke. "Seems like they want some more! So let's give it to 'em! Machoke use another thunder punch!" cried Maylene. Machoke charged its fists with more electricity, and ran towards Huntress. "Huntress, make sure he doesn't hit you! Try and doge all his incoming attacks!" I shouted. Machoke swayed in on Huntress and swung a powerful right. Huntress was able to duck out of the way in preparation for the punch, but Machoke's eye shined again, and his momentum was completely shifted into his left hand. He threw a left straight, smacking Huntress across the face. "Gah!" she uttered as she flew into a rock.

Damn it! Okay it has to be No Guard, his movements and accuracy are just too strong! I gotta burn him now! "Huntress, Recover your energy, then hit him with Will-o-Wisp! quickly!" I called out to her. "Right, I'm on it!" she responded. Huntress quickly recovered her hp. "Machoke don't give her space! Thunder punch, and combine it with bullet punch!" Machoke sprung forward, propelling his body like a speeding bullet. Huntress fired off her will-o-wisp attack in a flurry of shots, but Machoke weaved in and out of the embers by shifting his body weight like a boxer, weaving in and out. He got in close and was about to attack, but an idea leaped into my head. "Huntress, concentrate the embers into an orb at close range he can't avoid it! Give it everything you've got!" I cried out.

Huntress clapped her hands together, and held them out in front of her right as Machoke was swinging his fist. A huge ball of purple flames manifested within seconds, and exploded between the two pokemon. The blast was so powerful both of them were sent flying backwards. Huntress caught herself in midair, and regained her composure quickly. Smoke from the flames started clearing, and Machoke was revealed with his arms crossed over his face as if he were guarding. His arms were severely burned.

I grinned, "Ha, now he can't hurt you now, Huntress!" I said reassuringly. "Pull him out now, Maylene or risk your pathetic pokemon's meaningless life!" I said coldly. To my dismay, Maylene smiled. "Heh Heh, sorry soul, but this battle just started!"


	13. Appreciation!

Hey guys! today the views of my story have finally broken the 200's barrier, and i have recieved a few very helpful reviews. Even though everyone reading my story isn't commenting on it, i can tell you have a lot of interest in my writing! I encourage each of you to find more readers, maybe friends among the internet, or people you may know who like to read fan fics/short stories or whatever the case may be. This is really just an attempt at refining my artistic view on fictional literature using a topic many people i know really love (judgeing based on the amount of sales of X and Y), so all of your support really helps my drive to write more, and better.

This isn't a new chapter, but a strong thank you for spending your time reading, and i pray more and more people (as you read) point out some of the minor kinks in my writing so i can continue to get better! Please message me, weather it'd be some reviews on what you'd like to see happen next or to ask questions about certain characters you like, its fine by me! and i PROMISE Soul's team, and not any one persons team, will become drastically overpowered (In regards to Emperor's rapid evolution, i kinda hate prinplup, he's an ugly duckling so i skipped it entirely haha...) Keep reading and show your support through the reviews, and i'll be happy to keep writing!

So like i said, please Favorite, and Follow!

THANK YOU!


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